Laserfiche WebLink
Regular City Council Meeting <br />August 18 2003 <br />Page 9 <br />and if she leaves that will be 20 hours a month he would have to do without her <br />commitment. He said that if they have been reading the newspaper, there were <br />several articles about El Paso being sued over judging of indigent, and Haltom <br />City being accused of civil rights violations. The Legislature has now defined <br />indigent as being a person that earns not more than 125% of the income <br />standards for applicable Federal Poverty Guidelines. <br />Councilman Guest asked if this calls for justifying another clerk. Judge Hunt <br />felt he could justify that because he has four clerks and they are all at the <br />highest step that can go to. He has one with 25 years of experience, one with <br />13 years, one with 10 years, and one with 6 years. Judge Hunt said that he has <br />1200 outstanding warrants and that is a substantial amount of fines. He said <br />that at this point, they have a contract that we do farm out some collection <br />work, and they work him pretty hard, but there is an added fee that they collect <br />on top of that. He said they make some additional collection each month. <br />Judge Hunt said the Municipal Court is audited by the comptroller because <br />they are mandated to do that. In every audit he has seen, there has been a <br />recommendation that they get on the Court's Program which requires a Court <br />Clerk to call persons each Monday who have missed their payments. He said <br />we do not have sufficient personnel to do this. The next step is that person is <br />mailed a letter that has been computer generated, then they get a summons and <br />then the person would be arrested. He said if they had an additional Court <br />Clerk she could work on the collection of the fines that are outstanding. There <br />are 1234 warrants at the end of August 12, 2003, with an outstanding balance <br />of $480,000.00. Then, there are regular warrants where people have been <br />issued regular citations and the case never appeared. Then there is <br />$226,000.00 outstanding where people have appeared and never paid and they <br />have outstanding warrants. City Manager Malone advised that police officers <br />are out there serving warrants. Judge Hunt said they do not have someone <br />doing it all of the time. He hoped that some way they could have a city <br />warrant officer and all he would do is serve warrants. Councilman Guest said <br />what he really is in need of is a Court Clerk and a Warrant Officer. <br />