County Judge Outlines 2025 Priorities

Judge Lane Carter is the chief executive of Tom Green County.

County Judge Lane Carter kindly took some time out of his busy schedule to sit down and visit about some of his top priorities for 2025.

“The top priority in local government is always your budget,” Carter said. “That’s the biggest thing… the tax payers’ dollars — and you are the steward of those dollars — so we have to utilize every dollar carefully, and right now where we are having most of our service dollars go is toward the public safety sector, and the justice side of local government.”

Carter talked about how each step in the lengthy justice process comes with a real-life price tag.

“What I tell people is, if you really want to know where your county dollars are going, just get arrested,” he said. “If you’re arrested — and it’s anything that goes all the way through the court system — then you’re going to see where those dollars go; from the taxi ride in one of our nice sheriff’s deputy vehicles over to the county jail, the processing with the jailers; your interaction with attorneys; your interaction in the court system, and with the judges. It adds up quick.”

Judge Carter said it costs the county about $75 daily to house each inmate, and pointed out that some detainees may spend years in jail if they are awaiting trial on capitol murder charges, for instance, which will eventually exceed $100,000 dollars in detention costs if their stay lasts more than 44 months.

Carter said the county currently has about 445 inmates in custody, and the jail has a capacity of just over 570, putting detention at about 78-percent of capacity, with a daily cost of around $33,375.

He also noted that the County Jail currently is understaffed, and said getting up to full employment there is a main priority.

New Courthouse Annex

Another big goal for the county involves building a new courthouse annex at some point in the near future, which Judge Carter said is necessary due to outdated courtrooms and facilities in the County Courthouse, which is nearly 100-years old, and subject to the approval of the Historical Commission where any changes are being considered.

“We have some reserve funds set aside for this,” Carter said. “Its not something that’s going to get done this year, but there is a real need for this, (due to) the growth in our district courts, our county courts-at-law, and our JP courts.”

He said things are very much in the initial planning stages currently, and the decision is still up-in-the-air as to where the new annex would be situated, although he suggested that the old jail location on the north side of Harris Avenue would be ideal.

“We’ve got the whole Justice Center over there, with a jail that we don’t need anymore,” he said. “That facility … is a liability currently. Not as a danger, but a maintenance liability. It’s a money pit.”

“We have half of it not being used, but some of our courts are still over there, along with county attorneys; (Justice of the Peace Pct. 1) is over there…so that’s something we are looking into.”

Carter said one of the main concerns of a county judge is just trying to stay on top of facilities maintenance, working to replace aging infrastructure, like cast-iron pipes before they fail, and updating existing facilities like audio visual systems in courtrooms, where possible.

“We still have a couple little things to check-off the list to actually finish the AV upgrade, but we did a major remodel in Judge Woodward’s (119th District) courtroom,” Carter explained. “It’s not something most people think about, but it’s important to have these improvements that allow the display of evidence, and microphones and good speakers so everyone can hear in those giant courtrooms.

State funding

Judge Carter said in his experience so far, the mechanisms for state funding could use some improvement.

“(State funding is) all over the place,” he explained. “It definitely needs work, especially when we see what they’ve mandated us to do, then you look at the surplus at the state level, of what they have to work with…but county government is an extension of the state, so there’s a lot of them telling you what services need to be provided.”

He said the cooperative assistance received through the Texas Association of Counties is invaluable.

“The Association of Counties does a heck of a job,” Carter said. “They monitor any kind of legislation that’s being filed. If a bill is out there that’s going to affect the county negatively or positively, they let us know.”

One area where Carter said he is trying to improve things involves changing thresholds for the procurement process, which he said have not been updated since the legislation was created around the turn of the century, along with rules that require architectural and engineering consultation on projects like replacing a few-thousand dollar’s worth of worn-out carpet, for instance.

The Tom Green County Commissioners Court will hold its regular meeting at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21.

To see the agenda, click the link below.
http://deptpages.co.tom-green.tx.us/countyclerk/CCAgendas/fy2015/agenda.pdf