Extend agreement to operate $50 million jail
First there is a mountain,
then there is no mountain,
then there is... - Donovan, ca. 1967
Six Shooter Junction – His name is Virgil Bain; he is closing his law practice in Waco; he is your new Associate Criminal Judge of McLennan County.
It is so ordered by Ralph T. Strother, 19th District Judge; Matt Johnson, 54th District Judge; Mike Freeman, Judge of County Court at Law No. 1; and T. Bradley Cates, Judge, County Court at Law No. 2.
The item was not on the agenda of the McLennan County Commissioners Court; there was no such agenda posted on-line, though Judge Jim Lewis' Administrative Assistant Lynne Lockwood insists there was such a posting.
First, you type in co.mclennan.tx.us/special_un.aspx; then you click on “Regular Supplemental Agenda,” and you get this:
At this time, no supplemental agenda/s have been
posted relative to the currently posted, next
regular Commissioners Court meeting.
Supplemental agendas must be posted
at least 72 hours before the meeting starts.
Judge Bain has been been hired, but his compensation has not been set.
He can hear pleadings in pre-trial hearings and docket calls, according to testimony in today's Court session.
The new judge replaced Jail Magistrate Raymond Britton, who served at the rate of compensation of $24,000 per year for four years while at the same time, he also served the municipalities of Bruceville-Eddy, Riesel and Moody as their city judge.
According to an opinion of Abel Reyna, the District Attorney, he resigned from the those judgeships effective his acceptance of the magistrate's position. That is the state of the law under the Texas Constitution and cases in which the holdings are still paramount, according to Mr. Reyna's research.
Mr. Britton was compelled to resign his post as Jail Magistrate when the Texas Legislature acted to require magistrates to hold a law degree and to be admitted to the bar to practice law, two requirements which Judge Britton does not have.
Knowledgeable observers estimate that District Judges are paid at the rate of about a yard and a half in six figures, Courts at law at nearly that with a top budget of $135,000.
T'is quite a jump from two bits on the dollar, methinks.
In other matters, the New Jersey-based corporation CEC (Civigenics) received a six-month extension on an agreement to operate two county-owned jail facilities, the old County Jail at the Courthouse Annex, which stands empty after the Court drained its prisoners to be housed in the new facility, the Jack Harwell Detention Facility next door to the County Jail on Highway 6.
Reportedly, the privately opeated jail was recently denuded of Latina inmates held by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) branch of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) due to insufficiencies in jail standards, health care, and other considerations such as a supreme reluctance to go along to get along with officials of Obama Administration.
About 90 of them were transferred to a facility operated by Corrections Corporation of America at Taylor in Williamson County.
Red Staters nationwide have been so afflicted, some of them with federal litigation directed by the Department of Justice, such as Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona's Maricopa County, who was earlier this month similarly cited for depriving latinos of their civil rights.
Either way, corporate types who do business with Republican state and local governments find themselves increasingly unable to collect per diem fees for housing federal prisoners, detainees and deportees.
And the floggings will continue until morale improves!
How does one win this game? You don't play, that's how. You don't play.
Oh, Juanita,
Oh, Juanita,
Oh, Juanita,
I call your name...
(click the verse above for a minority report)
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