David L. Smith County Manager Dice of the County Manager 101 W. Nueva, Suite 1024 San Antoni, 7X 78205 Phone (210) 335-0179 Fax (210) 335-2683 wav berarorg May 16, 2019 Ana C. Amici General Administrative Counsel Criminal District Courts 101 W. Nueva, Suite 301 San Antonio, Texas 78205 RE: Critical Funding Request Amended Memorandum Dear Ms. Amici Thank you for your letter requesting funding for County magistrates to provide weekend coverage to handle post-indictment cases, including motions to revoke probation and pre existing warrants (attached), It is my understanding that District and County court judges have ‘chosen to retain jurisdiction regarding the magistration of these types of cases. This is a change from long-established past practice. City Magistrates provided all county magistration prior to 2007 (including post-indictment cases) and were providing magistration for these types of eases from mid-November 2018 to May 13, 2019. This is the exact practice employed in Travis County as well. Asa reminder, the County contracts with the City of San Antonio for City magistrates to provide all magistration services. The City is also contractually obligated to provide coverage 24 hours, per day, seven days a week. Accordingly, I do not recommend funding duplicative magistrate positions. 1 respectfully suggest that the County and District court judges continue to use the city ‘magistrates, a practice that has precedent, both in Bexar County prior to 2007 and elsewhere i Texas. If, however, the judges choose to handle post-indictment cases, to inelude coverage over the weekends, | Fecommend that the 44 District and County court judges develop a rotating shift to cover weekends (and | assume, holidays). If the existing County and District judges rotated weekend coverage (similar to the current eight hour coverage on weekdays by visiting judges). it would only require each judge to cover approximately two weekend shifis during the year This assumes the workload is shared equally among the judges. Alternatively. each ju individually could magistrate these types of post-indictment cases for their own court, on call basis. Any of these options would be more cost-effective than funding additional, duplicative magistrate positions. David L. Smith Bexar County Manager/Budget Oficer Attachment: Amended Memorandum Critical Funding RequestCRIMINAL DISTRICT COURT ADMINISTRATION PAUL ELIZONDO TOWER 101 W. NUEVA, SUITE 301 SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS. 78205 (210) 335-2544 amici besar.or ANC. AMC GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE COUNSEL AMENDED MEMORANDUM =*CRITICAL FUNDNIG REQUEST** 70: David Smith County Manager FROM: Ana C. Al General Administrative Counsel, Criminal District Courts, May 14,2019 RE: County Magistrates On April 30, 2019 Commissioners Court voted to de-fund the judicially appointed magistrate positions, The removal of county magistrates from the criminal justice system has thrown the system into chaos and has left the County exposed without a magistrate available 24/7 to handle the various legal issues that cannot be covered by the existing city, magistration system, The City has notified the criminal county and district courts that they will not be handling any post-indictment cases, Therefore, criminal matters requiring immediate attention are not being addressed by the County. Issues ranging from motions to revoke probation to pre-existing warrants and post indictment fugitives are not able to be processed within 48 hours as required by law. As an example, an individual who was subject to electronic monitoring removed his electronic monitor over the weekend and there was not judge available to handle the issue. This is a serious public safety issue and it is a violation of the law not to magistrate an arrested person within 48 hours of arrest. The judiciary is certain this was not the intended consequence of defunding the county magistrates. Nonetheless, the criminal district courts request immediate release of funds to re-instate 24/7 magistration at the JIAA facility in the interest of public safety. In the alternative the judiciary request county magistration coverage over the weekends.