The Brown County Auditor Jennifer Robison recently requested an opinion from the Texas Attorney General regarding four matters regarding financial activities in the Brown County Attorney’s office.
One of these matters involves possible comingling of funds from the County Attorney’s hot check fund to supplement staff salaries within the County Attorney’s Office. The request for opinion asks the AG whether “pretrial diversion ‘donations’ or payments otherwise received can be lawfully transferred from the Brown County Attorney’s request and with the approval of the Brown County Commissioners Court to be comingled with money in the County Attorney’s office.” These pretrial diversion payments come from “an agreement with defendants in misdemeanor criminal cases to refrain from prosecuting violation of law if the alleged offender agrees to ‘donate’ or otherwise pay money to the Brown County Attorney as part of pretrial diversion agreements with his office,” according to Robison’s request for opinion.
During Monday’s meeting of the Brown County Commissioners Court, Robison asked for consideration of payment of the County Attorney’s administrative employees’ salaries from the general fund. According to County Attorney Shane Britton, the portion of these salaries that is supplemented by the hot check fund is less than $1500.Robison explained that the current balance of the hot check fun is about $800 and that the number of hot checks written is down compared to the number of hot checks written in the past, due to the use of debit cards and electronic transfers of funds. She requested the salaries of these employees be paid through the County Attorney’s general fund line item until she could get an opinion back from the AG stating whether or not the transfer of the pretrial donations or payments can be transferred to fund the salaries through the hot check fund, as was done in the past.
“Because of my letter to the Attorney General and until we can get a final decision from the Attorney General regarding all these transactions that have been occurring, from what I understand has been many years, I would like to propose that we pull the staff salaries of the County Attorney out of the County Attorney’s general fund line items as opposed to transferring funds to the hot check fund,” Robison stated. She explained there is plenty of money in this fund to cover the salaries.
Commissioners expressed their desire to get an opinion from the Texas Association of Counties (TAC) lawyers. Robison gave a little history of why the opinion for the request was made.
“The forensic auditor, when he first came on board, suggested this Attorney General opinion be sought. Several years back the judicial conduct committee, when the previous (Brown County Court at Law) judge before I guess Judge Moss, had suggested that an official Attorney General opinion be sought,” explained Robison. She stated they became involved when a complaint was filed against the previous Brown County Court at Law judge.
“The request for the opinion argues whether or not the transfer from a commissioners-controlled fund can be moved to the hot check fund, which is not controlled by commissioners court. That is the question that is at stake,” stated Robison. “The county attorney has that the way that his people have been paid, which is through the hot check fund, which has about 800 bucks in it. It is going to become more and more unsustainable in that way because no one really has that many hot checks anymore.”
County Judge Ray West expressed his wish to get an opinion from the TAC attorneys, whether by phone or whether it took a trip to Austin to speak personally with the attorneys, before commissioners take any action that may impact the County Budget.
“I would like to present all of the facts to general counsel of TAC and get some input. I don’t want to mess the status quo up unless it needs to be changed. Let’s get some insight and then take this up next Monday,” said West.
Robison explained that she would not be comfortable making any transfers until she received the opinion and that the funds could be paid back, if it was found that the transfers were legal.
“My concern is that we get those people paid, I mean, I am not comfortable signing a transfer until I know because that’s my license, my name and my license on the line,” said Robison. “If we can get them paid, and honestly, I hope that they come back and say no all this is good, because that is less work for my office. But in the meanwhile, if we can get this moved and then get them paid, then get the opinion back, if we need to pay the funds back, let’s pay the funds back. I just want to make sure these girls are paid and that they are not affected because we cannot agree on what’s right and what’s wrong or what’s left and what’s right.”
Britton agreed with Robison stating that paying these salaries out of the general fund would be alright to get the staff paid; however, he did agree with West about getting another opinion. “That’s just a safeguard until you get an opinion. That’s the one thing we do agree on today. The whole issue of the AG’s opinion, that is a whole separate issue.” He stated that the county did need to get an opinion from TAC so that the county can respond when the opinion is issued by the AG.
Commissioners then agreed to re-agenda the item for next Monday, June 27, 2016, after getting an opinion from the TAC attorney’s.
To view the entire request for opinion from the Attorney General’s Office CLICK HERE.
In other matters on Monday’s agenda:
*No action was taken to implement a burn ban. There is no burn ban in effect currently.
*Elections Administrator Karen Opiela received approval to purchase 25 used/refurbished electronic voting units (EVUs) from Hart Intercivic, at a price just under $50,000. She explained that this bid included the first year’s cards and software for the machines.
*Opiela also received approval of hiring up to two temporary/part-time employees on an as needed basis. The hourly rate approved was base clerical pay at $10.58/hour for less than 29 hours per week, not to exceed $15,000 total expense during this current budget cycle for the two employees.
*Brown County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Vance Hill received approval of two employee changes within the jail.
*Commissioner Precinct 4, Larry Traweek, received approval for a private line installation on County Road 569.
*Commissioner Precinct 1, Gary Worley, received approval for the purchase of a ¾ ton 2012 4-door pickup from Bostick’s in the amount of $20,107.12. This vehicle will be used for road crew work and will replace a 2004 Chevy which is having issues of not starting, according to Worley.
*Commissioner Precinct 1, Gary Worley, received approval for the purchase of a ¾ ton 2012 4-door pickup from Bostick’s in the amount of $20,107.12. This vehicle will be used for road crew work and will replace a 2004 Chevy which is having issues of not starting, according to Worley.
