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Bexar County commissioners this week listened to pleas from judges within the county's judicial system to provide them with a funding cushion as federal COVID relief runs out.
Much of that funding under the American Rescue Plan Act supported some of their work at a critical time.
Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales, who did not seek reelection and leaves office on Jan. 1, 2027, urged commissioners during a budget workshop session on Tuesday to not let impact courts, that were created in the pandemic era, to disappear. Those courts were established to attack a backlog of cases, largely created as courtrooms were shut down by the pandemic — and some argued there is much work to do.
Family violence cases especially soared as entire families quarantined at home for months and even years.
"Everything that you've heard from these judges is accurate in the terms of the need to continue funding these impact courts, at least until the end of next year's fiscal year," Gonzales told commissioners.
With the next district attorney still unknown until after November elections, there is a lot of uncertainty in the county judiciary on how cases will be approached, prioritized and handled under the next DA's policies.
The judges also asked for funding for a few court personnel. The total asks from the judiciary until the next fiscal year amounted to more than $3 million.
County Judge Peter Sakai expressed some concern with the clarity of the funding requests put together by county staff. There was also much discussion over the effectiveness, or lack thereof, in winning grants to help fund the courts, especially for the Veterans Treatment Court.
Precinct 3 Republican County Commissioner Grant Moody celebrated the success of the impact courts but cautioned the judges about future funding because of the county's $145 million funding gap.
"We saw a need, we stood up the impact courts, we found funding for that," he said. "And then, those impact courts were successful on reducing that backlog, so in that regard, I think we should be proud of the work that was done. As we go forward, we're just going to have to see if there's really an imminent risk of a backlog popping back up or not."
One county employee assigned to a local DPS Highway Patrol Office came forward to ask for a raise for her and a colleague. That prompted Precinct 4 County Commissioner Tommy Calvert to urge commissioners to not give up yet on finding room in the budget for a cost-of-living increase, or COLA, for all county employees.
"It's hard for me to understand, with the economic times we're in, how we do not give an employee COLA," he said.
Calvert's request seems very unlikely to be fulfilled. The county budget office previously convinced county commissioners to vote no for a raise for themselves and county employees and retirees this next fiscal year because of the budget deficit.
Calvert suggested COLA money might be found with more scrubbing of the budget. He said funding set aside for a downtown minor league baseball park, that has been delayed a year, may be one area to explore.
