Commissioners Court Meeting

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Meeting Date:	02/27/2017
OCA Fines & Fees
Submitted for:	Melinda Mata	Submitted By:	Melinda Mata
Department:	County Judge


Subject:
Discussion and possible action to formally transfer the duties and responsibilities associated with the collection of all assessed court costs, fines and fees from County Courts at Law I and II to the Webb County Clerk’s office as authorized by statute in an effort to address deficiencies within the County’s court collections improvement program and regain compliance with the Office of Court Administration (OCA); and any other matters incident thereto. Issue: The county’s current court collection improvement plan is not in compliance with the OCA program requirements. A noted deficiency in the plan is that judicial collection officers assigned to the Tax Assessor’s office are blocked from accessing information from the case management system for the county court at law caseloads. This case information is initially received by county clerk staff which are already assigned to both County Courts at Law. Solution: Transfer these primary collection responsibilities for court costs, fines and fees for County Courts at Law back to the Webb County Clerk who is legally obligated to perform these tasks. The Tx. Govt. Code §102.061 authorizes that the County Clerk shall collect fees and costs assessed in statutory county courts. The Tx. Code of Crim. Procedure Art. 103.003 authorizes the County Clerk as the collection agent for these fees. Result: Ensure that all court costs, fines and fees assessed by the County Courts a Law will be properly identified and collected as per the county’s collection improvement program and new judicial software system in an effort to regain compliance with the OCA.
Background:

Previous Court Action: