Commissioners approve giving fee proceeds to Juvenile Probation

Gonzales County commissioners on Monday approved an agreement with the County Juvenile Probation Department to allocate money collected under the Local Truancy Prevention and Diversion Fund for a juvenile alcohol and substance abuse, education and leadership program.

According to Local Government Code Section 134.156, money which the county collects through local consolidated fees on conviction of nonjailable misdemeanors are to be placed in a local truancy prevention and diversion fund maintained in the county treasury.

The law states those funds “may be used by a county… to finance the salary, benefits, training, travel expenses, office supplies, and other necessary expenses relating to the position of a juvenile case manager …”

“If there is money in the fund after those costs are paid, subject to the direction of the governing body of the county … and on approval by the employing court, a juvenile case manager may direct the remaining money to be used to implement programs directly related to … juvenile alcohol and substance abuse programs, educational and leadership programs, and any other projects designed to prevent or reduce the number of juvenile referrals to the court.”

“Prior to 2020, we were collecting a nonjailable misdemeanor fine of $2,” Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Darryl Becker said. “The legislation in 2020 rolled it into what they considered a local consolidated court cost and we can collect $14. Under that local consolidated court costs, there are court technology and court security that stays to be used at the discretion of Commissioner's Court.

“The funds that are there that were collected after 2020, we could probably make use of or the Juvenile Probation Office could. It's basically a juvenile case manager inside there to be able to divert some of these kids from being placed through the system.”

Treasurer Sheryl Barborak said the fund containing the fee that was collected prior to 2020 has a balance of  $13,602.83, but includes “a fee that that should have went to the state between the years of 2015 and 2018 that wasn’t permitted.” She said the amount collected since 2020 is $30,013.17 for a total of $43,616.

“Basically, the way that I see it and interpret it, commissioners, is that the legislation’s intent was that we use those funds as we do with court technology,” Becker said. “Whenever we buy computers, for the use of the county, we come to you and say, ‘This is how we do it.’ Now, these funds are collected by each one of our courts every quarter, and whenever I say each court, I mean the county court, the district court and all the JPs. All of the municipal courts are also collecting it so I also need to go talk to them to see if they can do it.”

Barborak reminded Becker that, of the fees collected by the courts, “half of that goes to the state and half of it stays in the county.”

“I take the total that is collected and times it by that 35 percent (per the state formula) and that averages about $3,000 per quarter,” Barborak said. “But if you read the law, it says you get to keep 50 percent if you have a juvenile case manager. Fifty percent has to go to the state, if you read the law.”

“I am just asking for the discretion of the court to fund this program, whatever it is, if it is $1 or $500,” Becker said. “I’m just asking the commissioners to direct it to Juvenile Probation.”

Auditor Becky Weston said her interpretation of the law is “that it does allow that if juvenile probation has a program, that they can get these fees, as we collect them, no more, no less.” She noted the situation is similar to how the county funds Crimestoppers through fees that are collected.

“You're not committing to an amount, only what's collected that stays in the county that you legally can direct to those programs based upon an agreement with juvenile probation,” Weston said. “It is very specific what you can do with these funds, and it is allowable, but it is up to Commissioner's Court to start with the agreement first.

“That particular Senate bill made a huge impact on all of our fines and fees and now that we have a substantial amount, we can also say what about what it’s bringing in quarterly. Now it's up to the court to make the decision: Do you want to give the money to the Comptroller? You have two options: you can give it to the Comptroller or you can fund a program.

“Once you agree to fund a program-based funding agreement with juvenile, it's going to take a step or two, and they're going to come back to you with an agreement to approve,” Weston added. “But first, you have to say yes. This is step one. You're not going to start getting money day one; it's going to be based upon an agreement that they come back and you approve. But we first have to start here.”

When the final agreement is presented and adopted, juvenile probation would have access to the money that already exists in the fund as well as funds collected quarterly, Weston said.