Written by Amanda Coers – Brown County Judge Ray West has issued a reply to a letter from District 60 State Representative Mike Lang regarding Lang’s recently filed bill: HB 2273 to the repeal statutes allowing the county attorney or commissioners court to accept gifts or grants to finance or assist the operation of the office of county attorney.

Near the conclusion of the Brown County Commissioners Court on Monday, March 6th, Judge Ray West briefly spoke of Texas State Representative Mike Lang’s bill, claiming Lang’s office had informed him the catalyst for filing the bill was reports from the media.

“I will provide copies of those for you to review and comment,” Judge Ray West told the commissioners. “When I asked them what was the catalyst for their drafting of those bills, their response was ‘when they said’ and ‘they told us this and they told us that,’ and I said, ‘who is they?’ and they said, the press,” the County Judge said.

 

Zach Maxwell, Chief of Staff for Representative Mike Lang, confirmed the Representative has been in contact and working with several Brown County residents regarding the bill, and not solely relying upon articles published by the media.

“We have gotten quite a few people reaching out, telling us the bill is a good thing,” Maxwell said, regarding bill to abolish the donation statute used in conjunction with the county’s pretrial diversion program. Lang’s office also stated there will be Brown County residents testifying in support of the bill during the hearing as well as the Justices of the Peace and Constables Association, Inc. (JPCA), the largest organization of elected county officials in the State of Texas.

Brown County Justice of the Peace, Pct. 4, Jim Cavanaugh endorsed the bill by saying, “It does not pass the smell test when you have the county attorney collecting gifts and donations directly from defendants.”

Any Brown County residents wishing to provide input or testify regarding Representative Lang’s bill may email: mike.lang@house.texas.gov

The letter from Brown County Judge Ray West reads as follows:

Dear Representative Lang:

 

I am in receipt of your letter of March 6, 2017 responding to my comments in Commissioners Court on Monday. The tenor of your letter is somewhat combative, and I am perplexed as to the reason for your evident displeasure. This response is certainly not intended to be contentious, but I feel the facts reported to you should be set straight.

If you have the opportunity to listen to an audio tape of my comments, you will conclude that I was not at all critical of the bill nor of you or Senator Buckingham. As you will recall from our conversation on Thursday, my only concern was that you had not contacted me nor any commissioner about a bill that has a direct impact on the Brown County. You may also recall that I was in every way supportive of the bill, and in fact, questioned the “donation legislation” as being contrary to Texas law. As I explained, the authority to accept donations to the county is within the exclusive province of the Commissioners Court. I will reiterate my statement to you during our March 2 meeting … I am, unconditionally, in favor of repealing the “donation legislation” that was passed in 2007.

You should be aware that the donation procedure was abandoned in 2015, so your comment that the “County Attorney’s donation program should already have been terminated” is moot. Unfortunately, facts such as these are conveniently omitted by news reports. If you desire to be informed of the current state of the “donation procedure” the best source of information is the Brown County Attorney’s Office or my office.

One other matter that I would address is the reliance by your office on mass media reports. It is an unfortunate fact that our mass media has a tendency to sensationalize any news item. The donation fund is no exception.

You have also been woefully mislead with regard to the availability of the pretrial diversion program to a repeat DWI offender. At no time has a repeat DWI defendant been placed under the pretrial diversion program, and certainly no repeat DWI offender has been given the opportunity to pay a “donation” in exchange for a dismissal.

As to the “trail of victims” referred to in your letter, I would offer the following observation: pretrial diversions were always agreed to by the defendant, defendant’s attorney, as well as the county prosecutor, and the Court. I fail to see how such an agreement would victimize the defendant or the County.

I have no desire to take issue with you as to the benefit of your proposed legislation. The purpose of this response is simply to clarify the facts, and to urge you to contact me or any commissioner when you propose any legislation that has a direct impact on Brown County. My unannounced visit to you on Thursday was not for the purposes of debating the merits of your proposal, but rather to respectfully request that you contact me about any proposed bill that directly impacts Brown County, and to express my support for the bill. In short, we must take steps to improve communications between our offices.

Best regards,

E. Ray West, III

County Judge

A response from Representative Mike Lang’s office was issued shortly after, and reads as follows:

Dear Judge Ray West,

Thank you for your response letter. I am pleased to see you are in favor of repealing the “donation legislation” that was passed in 2007. Listed below is the language of House Bill 2273:

Strikes[ Sec.4 5.125) “The county attorney or Brown Countyo r the Commissioners Court of Brown County may accept gifts or grants from any individual, partnership, corporation, trust, foundation, association, or governmental entity for the purpose of financing or assisting the operation of the office of the county attorney in Brown County. The county attorney shall account for and report to the county auditor all gifts and grants accepted under this section.”

As you can see by the language of the bill, it does not say anything about the pretrial programs listed in Title 2. Code Of Criminal Procedure. Whether Sec. 45.125 was used as a pretrial program in the County Attorney’s office and or by the Commissioners Court might be up to interpretation. Either way I am glad we agree it needs to be repealed.

As we further dissect the language of the bill it says the County Attorney “OR” the Commissioners Court may accept gifts etc. From your years as county judge and an attorney I know you realize that repealing Sec. 45.125 does not take away the commissioners court ability to accept donations and gifts. This right is granted to the commissioners court under Local Government Code Chapter 81 Sec. 81.032 Acceptance of donations and bequests.

HB2273 repeals Sec. 45.125. Once again this bill takes away legislation that should not have been written. I believe this bill will help Brown County maintain the integrity of the rule of law.

We both are concerned about the people we serve and want to do what is right. Please feel free to contact me anytime for any of your concerns. Looking forward to working with you in the future and I am honored to be serving the citizens of Brown County.

Very Respectfully,

Representative Mike Lang

House District 60