County Commissioners Court Briefs
County cracks down on missing jurors Young County Judge Win Graham made good on his promise to crack down on no-show jurors by holding County residents who failed to appear for jury duty without a legitimate excuse in contempt of court and fining them. Judge Graham said he would get tough on no-shows after sending out 75 summons to seat six jurors for a trial in October because almost half of the summoned residents did not show up.
“In early November, I sent a letter to everyone who did not appear and ‘ordered’ them to meet with me over the month of November to explain why they did not appear,” Judge Graham said. “A large number of people responded and we went over their specific circumstances. Some had legitimate reasons for missing and were excused. Others did not have a good reason and were assessed a fine.”
At the Dec. 11 Commissioners Court meeting, Judge Graham instructed County Constable Cliff Blackstock to serve orders to appear to the nine residents who failed to respond to his letter. The penalty under Texas law for failing to appear for jury duty is a fine of between $100 and $1,000.
All but one of the nine appeared at a show cause hearing on Jan. 4. Judge Graham issued a writ of attachment that commanded sheriff ’s deputies to go to the home of the one missing prospective juror. He appeared for his show cause hearing 90 minutes later, Judge Graham said.
“Now that it is over, I am proud that I have made my point on the importance of answering a jury summons and that in Young County there will be consequences for ignoring a summons,” Judge Graham said. “It is also timely as we are sending out a new batch summons for a jury trial that I am having at the end of this month. I hope that we will have better than 60 percent attendance this time around.”
County approves sales of Olney lots County Commissioners unanimously ratified the sale of two foreclosed lots in the City of Olney to longtime resident Brenda Pratt and her brother Michael Pace. “These are properties that were sold at auction – some of the taxes are due to the County so we have to ratify their sales,” Judge Win Graham said. Ms. Pratt and Mr. Pace purchased the lots to preserve the site of the building where Olney’s Black families attended church and school during segregation.
County to join state investment pool County Commissioners discussed how much cash to invest in government investment pools from maturing certificates of deposits and money market investments. A portion of the County’s $1.8 million in CDs matured in December and were due to roll over automatically. The County was in the process of opening accounts in state government investment pools.
“My recommendation is to move that into government pools that we are opening up,” County Treasurer Kyle Milam said.
County Judge Win Graham, an accountant, suggested diversifying the County’s investments. “I’m 100 percent in favor of investing in these investment pools but I would think we want to have a balance between investing in the pools and investing in CDs. The interest rates in the pools fluctuate day-to-day, whereas the interest rates in CDs are fixed for a defined term.” he said.
The County also has about $4 million in money market funds and $8.5 million in registered deposits, Mr. Milam said. The Commissioners agreed to stagger the terms of the CDs and revisit the issue after the government investment accounts are opened.