Options for a three-county district attorney’s office to make up a potential shortfall could be limited.
DeWitt County’s Commissioners are proposing significant cuts to the budget for a District attorney‘s Office that covers it along with Goliad and Refugio counties. The proposed cut could limit the other two counties’ options to make up the office’s shortfall, the county judges from all three counties acknowledge.
One of the options to make up some of the shortfall is Senate Bill 22, which passed in the most recent legislative session and provides grant funding to rural counties to aid with staffing of law enforcement agencies. With the DA’s budget cuts, the grant may not be a viable option.
The bill allows the Texas comptroller to award grants to rural counties to assist with sheriff’s and prosecutor offices.
But one of the guidelines in the bill says a county may not reduce the amount of funds provided to a prosecutor’s office because of the funding.
DeWitt County is responsible for about 60% of the district attorney‘s budget, with Goliad and Refugio County together responsible for the remaining 40% as determined by the county’s population.
DeWitt County pays the district attorney‘s office directly, while the other two counties are invoiced for their share, Assistant District attorney Tim Poynter said. So, with DeWitt County’s proposed cuts, the budget will unilaterally cut the funding for the office by 66%, with the two other counties unlikely to be able to make up the difference in its budgets.
“DeWitt County is like the clearinghouse for the money,” the assistant district attorney said. “Therein lies the problem. DeWitt has decided they are not going to write everybody a check.”
If the proposed budget is approved as is on Monday, the more than 1,200 felony cases annually will likely be split between two attorneys, with the office losing one of its assistant DAs, he said. That’s five times the state-recommended caseload.
The grant application process has already started with this year’s budgeting process because of the needs of all the rural counties in Texas, Refugio County Judge Jhiela “Gigi” Poynter said.
The rules are still being written regarding the grants. But based on conversations with attorneys regarding the bill, DeWitt County’s budget cut would likely affect the other counties’ eligibility for the grants to make up the shortfall, the county judge said. While Refugio and Goliad counties haven’t reduced their portion of the office’s budget, the district attorney‘s office has to apply for the funding, so the cut will likely affect all three counties.
“The reason why I think it’s problematic is, let’s take, for example, the sheriff’s grant under SB22. The commissioner’s court applies for that. For the county attorney grant, the county attorney applies. For the district attorney grant, the district attorney applies,” she said. “Under that logic, our DA’s office would qualify three times. I don’t think that’s the case. I think the legislation wasn’t written with multi-county jurisdiction in mind. The guidance I’ve received is they would look at the jurisdiction as one. That prosecutions office would only be able to apply one time using the total population of the jurisdiction.”
The main question in the bill’s wording is what its intent means in terms of each county’s ability to get additional resources, Judge Poynter said.
“Sometimes when legislation comes down, even though it’s for rural prosecutors offices, bigger cities don’t have to think about things such as joint jurisdiction,” she said. “Sometimes when they are writing these things, even with the best intentions, some of these things are a bit confusing still, which is why the comptroller is releasing all this guidance. It’s all so new, but the budgets have to be passed now.”
It takes cooperation in the environment to ensure things aren’t ruined for each county’s neighbors, she said, adding, “Obviously, DeWitt didn’t care about that.”
In a normal year, the grant legislation would wait until guidance was finalized before making them available, but with the need to help rural counties, an exception is being made. But everything needs to be to qualify, Judge Poynter said.
The three-county district has a population of about 30,000 people. Under SB22, the district attorney‘s office would qualify for $175,000 in grant funding for additional hires if approved.
Most of the felony cases prosecuted by the district attorney’s office come from Refugio and Goliad County, accounting for about 750 cases in the three-county district, prosecutor Poynter said.
Among these cases are many border crimes, human trafficking and drugs, the county judge said. Without a prosecutor to do anything with them, the counties would have to let those criminals go and Refugio County does not have the funds to make up the difference for the district attorney‘s office.
“We can’t survive with less,” she said. “I’m frustrated. I’m a first-year judge. I would have hoped, with one of the more senior judges in the area, that I would be able to look to him for guidance and as a role model on how these things should work and not have to be fighting with him to pull his share, for his county to fund an office that we share. It’s unfortunate.”
She said she understands the issues that DeWitt commissioners have with the district attorney‘s office, given issues with District attorney Robert Lassmann.
However, given the larger issues at play for the district, she said she hopes the commissioner’s court approves a budget in line with last year’s district attorney‘s office budget. Such a budget was alluded to in a conversation in July between Lassmann and DeWitt County Judge Daryl Fowler regarding the office’s budget and have services uninterrupted.
The DeWitt County Commissioner’s Court meets at 9 a.m. Monday to vote on finalizing its proposed budget.
State Rep. Geanie Morrison was at the budget meeting among the three judges on Tuesday, but did not respond to calls for comment regarding the legislative ramifications of the situation.
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