Maverick County Commissioners Court approves advertising for Maverick County Legal Counsel Position

By: Jose G. Landa
Copyright 2013

Maverick County Commissioners Court approved to advertise for the Maverick County Legal Counsel position at its special meeting held on Thursday, October 10, 2013, at the Maverick County Commissioners Courtroom in Eagle Pass, Texas following a September 30th decision by United States District Judge Alia Moses for the Western Division of Texas, Del Rio Division, to deny Maverick County a Motion to Vacate a Default Judgment in a federal court civil case involving alleged violation of civil rights by Maverick County, Maverick County Sheriff’s Department, and Javier Cardona, a former Maverick County Sheriff’s Department Deputy, against certain individuals.

Maverick County Commissioners Court seek to advertise for the civil legal counsel position, not the publicly-elected position of Maverick County Attorney currently held by Ricardo Ramos. Maverick County Commissioners Court will advertise the Maverick County Legal Counsel position and await to see how many attorneys or law firms apply for the civil legal counsel post and then select an attorney or a law firm to represent the County of Maverick and provide legal counsel to Commissioners Court on all civil matters at a future Commissioners Court meeting.

Another agenda item approved by Maverick County Commissioners Court at the October 10th meeting is to authorize Southwestern Capital Markets, Inc. to expand its role as County Financial Advisor to include coordination with Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber and other Maverick County Departments for all necessary steps to transition from GEO to a new operator of the Maverick County Public Facility Corporation’s Maverick County Detention Center located on Farm to Market Road 131 in the Maverick County Industrial Park (Radar Base) following the decision of The GEO Group, Inc. to withdraw from managing the Maverick County Detention Center effective October 31st.

Another agenda item approved by Maverick County Commissioners Court was to approve a financial advance off $35,000 to the 293rd Judicial District Juvenile Probation Department led by Chief Juvenile Probation Officer Bruce A. Ballou as a required local match for the Fiscal Year 2013-2014 based on Maverick County’s percentage of juvenile funding of said juvenile probation department.

One important item tabled by Maverick County Commissioners Court was an agenda item to fill a board member vacancy of the Maverick County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 Board of Directors pursuant to the Texas Water Code Section 49.105(c) following the resignation of Board Member Abdallah Moses and the Maverick County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 Board’s failure to agree on a replacement after four dead-locked votes of 2-2. The appointment of a new Board Member to the Maverick County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 was tabled because County Commissioner Jose Luis Rosales was absent at the meeting and County Commissioners Court believes that the full Commissioners Court should be present when appointing this new Board Member.