District Attorney Statement Regarding HB4280 Filed by State Representative Eddie Morales Calling for Creation of the 479th District Attorney Office
(Press Release) The filing of HB4280 which calls for the creation of a new District Attorney’s office solely for the County of Maverick County was filed on March 12, 2021 by Representative Morales without ever consulting with the Office of the 293rd Judicial District Attorney. It appears to have been filed without any support of the facts, nor any reasonable explanation.
In order to establish a new District Attorney’s office there are several common-sense steps which would be prudent to follow. Of course, I have absolutely no objection for change or for the creation of any new office if it is for the betterment of our community, should the facts and the evidence presented so justify it. However, in this case, there is no need for the creation of a new District Attorney’s office, nor can one be justified. I am against the waste of Maverick County taxpayer’s money.
First of all, most if not all of the entities that would be affected by this proposed bill were never consulted with. I as District Attorney oppose this proposed bill since there appears to be no need for the creation of a new District Attorney’s office. The Maverick County taxpayers,were never allowed to submit their input into the tremendous increase in costs that would have to be paid by Maverick County taxpayer’s, given that Maverick County taxpayers would have to make up for the monies now being paid by the Counties of Zavala and Dimmit. The County of Zavala and its taxpayer citizens were never contacted as to the potential doubling of expenses to them for no good apparent reason; as taxpayers they would have to make up for the loss of the taxpayers from Maverick County. No facts, nor analysis have been presented to justify this radical expenditure and waste of taxpayer money. At this point, given that no analysis has been done, it is unknown as to why this bill was even filed as there appears to be no reason, nor common
sense to support it. It is unknown as to whether Maverick County would even meet the threshold for its own District Attorney’s office, or whether it even qualifies for one without including Zavala and Dimmit Counties. Given that Zavala and Dimmit Counties have a population, as of 2019, of 22,476 (Zavala County 12039 and Dimmit 10,438) it is clear that they do not qualify for a District Attorney solely for Dimmit and Zavala counties. That would be a total waste of Texas taxpayers’ dollars.
As of Friday, March 26, 2021, absolutely no elected official from Maverick County ever contacted the office of the District Attorney to discuss this matter; and it is believed that no other affected parties have been contacted as well. Why this bill was filed without any facts, statistics, and previous meetings to discuss the merits of this bill remains a mystery. As it appears, this bill is unwarranted and unjustifiable. Normally, a local bill such as this one follows steps that should reasonably be taken such as first contacting the District Attorney to determine the needs of such a radical bill. Then based on the facts and statistics a determination should have been made as to whether or not the creation of a new District is needed. Secondly this matter should have been brought to the attention of the three County Commissioners courts (Maverick, Dimmit and Zavala) to determine if such a massive spending increase of taxpayer dollars can be justified using the fact and figures available to them.
Of course, given that we have been in the middle of a pandemic for over one year it is impossible to ascertain any real need given that the judicial system has been in lockdown in Texas. This of course has severely backlogged both civil and criminal cases in the entire State of Texas. According to State officials, it will take years to recover. For example, in 2019, Texas had over 10,000 jury trials, since the pandemic that number has dropped to approximately 250 cases.
This of course has created a massive backlog in district courts. county courts, probate courts, county courts of law, JP courts, municipal courts, District Attorney offices, County Attorney’s offices, and municipal prosecutor’s offices. Obviously, these are all the results of the Pandemic which has delta crushing blow to all Texans.
Another step that was not taken, given that the State of Texas is in a deficit budget situation, is that the State of Texas was not contacted to see if the money was available for the creation of an additional District Attorney office. As this would cost taxpayers of the State of Texas hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund.
Now is not the time for the waste of taxpayer money which brings the following question to mind: What is the true motive for the filing of a bill that cannot be justified and fails to provide any facts, documentation, nor statistics? Also, why was this bill filed on the last day and not made public until it was discovered by other sources.
I as District Attorney would not have a problem with discussing the merits of this bill had I been given a fair opportunity to do so. Also, rest assured that I would have been the first to call for a new District Attorney’s office if it was necessary. But in all honesty, fairness, and common sense, I cannot support this bill that simply has no merit.
