The Bexar County clerk will cover the $1million of funding needed for the district attorney to comply with a mandate from the Texas attorney general.
AG Ken Paxton wants DA Joe Gonzales to digitize the hard copies from 50,000 felony and misdemeanor criminal cases dating back to 2021.
The attorney general wants the digitized records in his office in six weeks. It's above and beyond previous required reporting to the state.
Precinct Four County Commissioner Tommy Calvert called the copy work a waste of taxpayer dollars.
"It's unfortunate that hard earned taxpayer dollars and property taxes has to go to an unfunded mandate from the state," he said.
Commissioners on Tuesday approved a budget transfer of $1million from a fund overseen by County Clerk Lucy Adame-Clark to one accessible by the DA.
It was the county clerk that proposed the transfer to get the thankful DA outside help to make copies.
"I am immensely grateful to County Clerk Lucy Adame-Clark for her swift and innovative solution to help our office meet a sudden, new, and unfunded mandate by Attorney General Ken Paxton," Gonzales said.
Paxton wants to know more about who the state's biggest DA's offices are prosecuting. But Gonzales has said his prosecutors need to be in a courtroom and not in a copy room.
