February 20, 2017 - A Pretrial Intervention Program fund was discussed at the Shelby County Commissioners' Court meeting held on Monday, February 13, 2017 and was approved.
According to Stephen Shires, Shelby County District Attorney, a Pretrial Intervention (Diversion) Program is a great tool to help individuals who have not been in trouble with the law before, especially younger people.
"Frankly, in today's world, today's computerized technological society you have a deferred adjudication really is no longer worth much, because those things are discoverable," said Shires.
Shires stated Code of Criminal Procedure allows him to establish such a program as an unofficial probation. He said the law allows him as the District Attorney to collect up to $500 as a program fee from individuals participating.
According to Shires the code is very specific that a separate account is required to be set up for Pretrial Intervention (PTI) and its administration.
Shelby County Judge Allison Harbison inquired of Shires if the plan for the program has been written up, and he said yes as the PTI is a contract between the prosecutor and the defendant. Upon completion by the individual, the prosecutor will decline to prosecute the case in question.
Judge Harbison asked for clarification that participants in the PTI would be first time offenders and would not include A or B misdemeanors.
"That's kind of my policy, it can be whoever you choose. There are various different kinds of examples," said Shires.
The District Attorney stated it is how he likes to resolve cases and one of his target offenders, for which he said there are not many, include people who may be accused of crimes involving food stamps.
"We have a number of cases of folks who get food stamps or something of that nature, and for some reason there's some lack of communication in their income and they end up being charged with essentially with fraud," said Shires.
To Shires this is a good way to resolve such cases of alleged fraud, returning the money to the state and letting the individuals "get on with their lives."
Judge Harbison also said it was her understanding, if everything went according to plan, those cases included in the PTI would not even go before her court or that of a District Judge to which Shires agreed.
Gary Rholes, Shelby County Attorney, confirmed with Shires any expenditure of the funds from the PTI account would have to be approved by the commissioners, and Shires agreed.
A budget analysis of $20,000 was established by Clint Porterfield, Shelby County Auditor. Judge Harbison explained to the commissioners, since the account has a zero balance, they would need to decide at what point funds could be expended from the account.
With the budget year already started, Judge Harbison said she would like to see the account accumulate some funds before it is used, maybe not until the next budget year.
"I know that diversions in the past have not really been set up on a basis where the people have not already committed crimes," said Judge Harbison. "It was just, they picked and chose who they wanted to have it. Some of them had graduated to felonies and they got pretrial and they had already had a bunch of misdemeanors, so I just would like to see it be run from this day forward in the way the law has it set up for."
Judge Harbison reiterated she would like to see it benefit individuals who do not have either an A or B misdemeanor. The Shelby County Probation Department would help to administer the PTI.
Judge Harbison said it is her understanding the Pretrial Intervention Programs have a 47% success rate overall. She stated half of the participants may never commit a crime again. If a participant fails to successfully complete the PTI agreement, Shires explained the process of prosecution then begins.
In response to inquiry from Judge Harbison, Rholes stated he has used pretrial intervention in the past a few times; however, he is not a "tremendous fan" and if he does use it he does not plan to have a set fee.
Porterfield stated the account for the program is Fund 94 and the funds can solely be used for the administration of the program. He said Shires suggested he could run 40 people through the program and so the fee of $500 times 40 people was calculated.
In addition to the $500 administration fee, those involved in the PTI program will pay a supervisor fee to the Probation Department. Shires says he hopes to be able to help fund a community service officer for the Probation Department.
A motion carried by the commissioners to approve the budget for the Pretrial Intervention Fund 94 with fees to begin being collected on February 15 and no expenditures to be made before being brought to the court for approval.
The commissioners approved the recording of the FY2016 Shelby County Jail Commissary Audit. Porterfield informed the court this audit has been performed by the county's outside auditor traditionally; however, due to the shortcomings of another county, a letter of certification is expected by the state confirming all expenditures have been reviewed.
Porterfield stated, through online banking, Farmer's State Bank has provided access to all accounts to himself and Ann Blackwell, Treasurer, making it much easier to accomplish a review of the expenditures.
"For the inmate account and for the commissary account, I would like to thank the sheriff and his staff, mainly Cindy Bradshaw who promptly responds to all of our inquiries concerning expenditures and especially for the commissary," said Porterfield.
Judge Harbison recognized Veterans Service Officer, Sherry Riley, on her Certificate of Completion for her specialized training for claims representation and counseling for calendar year 2016 and announced services provided by Lone Star Legal Aid to low income veterans.
"Sherry, thank you so much for the hard work that you do for the veterans. I have more people stop me and tell me how you've helped them immensely, and getting this legal aid to come in is really a good thing because there's just a lot of people that need advice on things, and are not able to afford attorneys," said Judge Harbison.
Judge Harbison explained for the commissioners Lone Star Legal Aid representatives are available at the historical courthouse in the Gibson room every third Tuesday of the month starting February 21, 2017 to provide assistance to veterans.
Riley responded to Harbison about the benefit of the training she has received, "I do understand that this is money out of our county budget, but I want you to know the money is very well spent. I have had some of the most excellent training this past year to the point that I am now accredited as a Veteran's Service Officer, which will enable me to get the software programs to access veteran's files and their information immediately and submit their claims immediately."
Riley said the veterans really appreciate the assistance and the instant response to issues instead of being told to wait as they are more used to doing.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:43am.
Officers' report
Fees collected per office for January:
Deborah Riley, Tax Assessor/Collector, office: Property: $2,921,921.68; Motor Vehicle: $140,133.79 for a total of $3,062,055.47
Jennifer Fountain, County Clerk: $33,017.16
Lori Oliver, District Clerk: $17,158.60
Maxie Eaves, Justice of the Peace Precinct 1: $4,372.00
Marla Denby, Justice of the Peace Precinct 2: $2,533
Margie Anderson, Justice of the Peace Precinct 3: $6,421
Jenny Hicks, Justice of the Peace Precinct 4: $4,635.10
Mike Crouch, Justice of the Peace Precinct 5: $3,894
Zach Warr, Constable Precinct 1: $875
James Hagler, Constable Precinct 2: 0.00
Roy Cheatwood, Constable Precinct 3: $270
Jake Metcalf, Constable Precinct 4: $180
Robert Hairgrove, Constable Precinct 5: $90.00
Grand total: $3,135,501.33
Interest and Sinking Fund generated $10.59 for a total book value of $34,854.20
Insurance Fund generated $7.74 for a total book value of $25,483.22
Money Market CD#1 generated $245.08 total market value of $426,224.01
Money Market CD#2 generated $244.66 total market value of $425,489.18
Total CD Transactions $508.87 at a total market value of $912,050.61
Shelby County Money Market generated $185.67 total market value of $874,603.87
Total Interest earned on investments $693.74
Total investments of $1,786,654.48
Interest Bearing Checking Accounts for January 2017
General Fund: 0.10% - $818.91
DA Forfeiture Non-Traffic: 0.05% - $0.22
DA Forfeiture - Traffic: 0.05% - $0.15
County Attorney Collections: 0.10% - $.73
County Clerk Account: 0.10% - $1.57
Tax Assessor VIT: 0.10% - $6.92
Tax Assessor Property: 0.10% - $64.33
DA Forfeiture Fund 37: 0.10% - $0.44
Total Interest Collected: $893.27
Jake Metcalf - Constable Precinct 4 January 2017 Activity Report
Calls for Service: 16
Reports: 4
Warrants filed: 2
Special Patrols: 21
Traffic Stops: 31
Papers served: 2
Agency Assists: 9
Fines Assessed: $5,400
Agenda items approved during the meeting:
1. Minutes of the January 9, 2017 Regular Meeting, and the January 23th, 2017 Special Meeting, of the Shelby County Commissioners’ Court.
2. Pay the monthly expenses.
3. Officers’ reports as presented by Ann Blackwell, Treasurer.
4. Pretrial Intervention Program Fund in accordance with the Criminal Code of Procedure, Article 102.0121.
5. Amendment to the LexisNexis subscription by adding the District Attorney.
6. Authorize the purchase and contract of cell phones for the District Attorney’s office for the District Attorney and District Attorney Investigator.
7. Recognize Certificate of Compliance from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards for Shelby County.
8. Record FY2016 Shelby County Jail Commissary Audit. County Auditor to report filings per local Government code 351.0415.
9. The contract of Amendment of The Interlocal Cooperation Act Contract between Shelby County and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB).
10. Purchase of a 2015 Peterbilt 567 tractor $114,044 for Precinct 4.
11. Opposition to Senate Bill 2 and Revenue caps.
12. Resolution for Opposition to Unfunded Mandates.
13. Resolution for State Funds for Indigent Criminal Defense (Statewide, the state is returning about 12% of what is expended by counties).
14. Accept quote of $49,460 on renovating the library building on the old school property.
15. Repair of air/heat units in 1885 Courthouse at a cost of $6,400.
16. Adjourn 10:43pm.
