Small Town News

County moves to increase disposition of criminal cases

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Burnet County commissioners were told Tuesday that the county currently falls short of state requirements for reporting on the disposition of criminal cases in the county, but is quickly making up ground.

The Texas legislature passed a law in its last session requiring the state's counties to have an average disposition completeness percentage of 90 percent or better.

County attorney Eddie Ar-redondo said it is unclear by what date the county must be in compliance, but said a plan for reaching the 90 percent goal must be presented to the Texas Department of Public Safety by June 1.

The rule went into effect Sept. 1 of last year and we had ouir plan formulated by Dec. 1,, but we waited until now to present," Arredondo said.

Arredondo told the commissioners that two thirds of the state's 254 counties fell short of the 90 percent disposition completeness figure last year and that Burnet County showed only a 37 percent rate.

County officials already have implemented several changes that have resulted in a quick jump in the disposition contipleteness figures in a short period of time and the county mow has a 70 percent rate of completion, Arredondo said.

District Clerk Dana De-Berry and County Clerk Janet Parker's; offices have begun reportinjg their information directly Ithrough the DPS Web site and that has made a difference, officials were told.

The county's new Odyssey computer software program, which links law enforcement and judicial departments, also has made for a more efficient system.

"We are ahead of the curve and well ahead of other counties toward being in compliance," Arredondo said.

Penalties for reaching the 90 percent compliance figure are vague, the county attorney said, but conceivably could include the county being declared ineligible for grants administered by the state.

Arredondo also gave the commissioners and County Judge Donna Klaeger a list of county officials who have been named to a new Burnet County Data Advisory Board and a list of recommendations designed to improve compliance figures.

Some of the recommendations, such as more office space for clerks and new computers, would require unbud-geted spending and that was a red flag for Klaeger and Pet. 1 commissioner Bill Neve.

"From what I can tell there would be well over $100,000 in additional expenses," Klaeger said.

"We went from 30 percent compliance to 70 percent without spending $100,000," Neve said. "I'm going to question spending that money to get the remaining 20 percent."

Parker said the county could get to 90 percent compliance without the added expense.

"I. feel confident we can meet that goal without additional personnel," she said.

The commissioners also discussed the issue of county employees who take county-owned vehicles home, but took no action.

"First we need to have a complete list of employees who are taking vehicles home," Klaeger said.

County Auditor Joan Fisher was instructed to furnish such a list at next week's meeting.

The commissioners also talked about who might be allowed to be a passenger in a county-owned vehicle.

Current county policy is that only someone who has been taken into custody by law enforcement officials, another county employee and others resulting from an emergency situation can ride as a passenger in a county-owned vehicle.

"We're probably going to go through this again at budget time when we start talking about cell phones," Klaeger said. "Who is supposed to get county-owned phones and who has them."

In other action Tuesday:

The commissioners accepted a check for $18,500 collected by several communities that support the county's Household Hazardous Waste Collection Program.

Klaeger administered the oath of office to Richard Ho-lifield as the newly appointed member of the board of the Briggs/Okalla Emergency Services District No. 8.

County tourism director Terri Freitag and Christian Fletcher of the Marble Falls/Lake LBJ Chamber of Commerce presented 2010 first quarter hotel occupancy reports.

Commissioners voted to award an engineering contract for design work on eight road and bridge contracts to Haley-Nelson and Associates of Marble Falls.



Copyright 2010 Burnet Bulletin, Burnet, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2010 Burnet Bulletin Burnet, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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