COMMISSIONERS' COURT AGENDA R ~ ~'
*PLEASE FURNISH ONE ORIGINAL AND FIVE COPIES OF THIS REQUEST AND
DOCUMENTS TO BE REVIEWED BY THE COURT
MADE BY: nay; d Mnt 1 ey
MEETING DATE:
March 11, 1996
OFFICE: County Attorney
TIME PREFERRED: 1:3o p.m.
SUBJECT: (PLEASE BE SPECIFIC) Personnel/budget matters
EXECUTIVE SESSION REQUESTED: YES ~ NO x
PLEASE STATE REASON FOR EXECUTIVE SESSION
ESTIMATED LENGTH OF PRESENTATION: ~ 5 mini~res
PERSONNEL MATTER - NAME OF EMPLOYEE: None
NAME CF PERSON ADDRESSING THE COURT: David Motley
Time for submitting this request for Court to assure that the matter 15 posted in accordance
with Article 6252-17 15 as follows:
~ Meetings held on second Monday: 12:00 P.M. previous Wednesday
* Meetings held on Thursdays: 5:00 P.M. previous Thursday
THIS REQUEST RECEIVED BY:
THIS REQUEST RECEIVED ON : ~
Ali Agenda Requests will be screened by the County Judge's Office to determine tf
adequate information has been prepared for the Court's formal consideration and action
at time of Court meetings. Your cooperation will be appreciated and contribute towards
your request being addressed at the earliest opportunity. See Agenda Request
Guidelines.
°°~~ of °
OFFICE OF THE COUNTY ATTORNEY
KERB COUNTY, TEXAS
CouNn CouR7sousR, suns B20
700 BAST MAIN STRBHI'
KRRRVILL8, 7s%AS 78028-5321
19LRPxoNR (210) 8963338 FAX (210) 896-0504
DAVR1 M. M071CY, Wuerrc wnacxcr
To: Kerr County Commissioners' Court
IL3R D. BARJiY, wavuNr OJUMY wrmwcr
HAROLD J. DANIORD, A]9@fANI' Cl]UNR' Anaoxbr
From: David Motley, Kerr County Attorney ~-
Date: March 6, 1996
Re: Commissioners Court Agenda It Personnel & Budget
Matters
This memo is being provided to you in the way of backup for
the attached agenda item.
I need to discuss various matters with the court regarding
County Attorney personnel and related budget items. As you will no
doubt recall, in December when Harold Danford left this office for
a position with the DPS in Austin, the court suggested that my
office should be able to take care of its duties with only two
attorneys, myself and one assistant. Despite my expressed opinion
that this would not work, you asked me to try it for a period of
six or eight weeks.
We have now been staffed with only two attorneys for
approximately ten weeks, and despite our best efforts, we find that
two attorneys are simply an insufficient number of bodies to do the
work +-hat we are mandated to do by the Texas Constitution and the
statutes, even without the additional non-mandated civil duties
which our First Assistant previously handled.
Based on the foregoing, I need the court to approve the hiring
of a third full-time attorney. This position will be an entry-
level attorney position.
The approval of a third attorney will not mean that this
office will be in a position to resume the additional civil duties
that Ms. Bailey previously handled. We have not been able to
prevail upon her to stay with the gffice, and we cannot expect to
hire anyone else with her level of experience or expertise, or
willingness to put in the time required to do that work for the
salary that we are able to offer. As I tried to warn you at the
time you made your ill-advised decision to limit this office to two
attorneys, the increased demands on the staff in my office have
resulted in personnel changes that will, unfortunately, cost the
taxpayers more in the long run.
I believe that with our staff increased back to three full-
time attorneys we will be able to meet the minimum requirements of
this job, even with newly licensed attorneys filling the positions
available; however, this change will require an immediate budget
amendment to replace the $10,000.00 that I find you have taken out
of my budget to pay Mr. Pollard's legal fees, without consulting
me.
Given that Mr. Pollard's services are as legal advisor for the
Commissioners' Court, and not for the county as a whole, and given
that they do not relate to constitutionally or statutorily mandated
county attorney duties, and given that the commissioners' court has
absolute discretion about the amount of expenses it incurs, it
would seem that this budget item would more appropriately come out
of the court's contingency budget.
I~P~ ~ z
. Z1z~~~
1~9a~~~~
-- ORDER N0. 23149
BUDGET AMENDMENT TO TRRNSFER FUNDS
FROM COUNTY ATTORNEY TO COMMISSIONERS COURT
AND RF'F'ROVRL OF LRTE BILL TO THOMAS W POLLARD ATTORNEY AT LAW
On this the 26th day oi' February 1996, upon motion made by
Judge Robert A. Denson, seconded by Commissioner- Holekamp, the
Court unanimously approved by a vote of 5-0-0, to transfer
S1V7,Naa.aa from Line Item No. 10-475-103 Assistant's Salaries
to Line Item No. 10-401-486 Professional Services and pay
51,136.29 from Line Item No. liD-401-486 Professional Services
to Thomas W. Pollard Rttor^ney at Law.
Item 2.13
persor~l/fidget NSatte~
~~ 11, 1996