Travis County Commssioners Court
December 2, 2003
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Item 36
>> ... [one moment, please, for change in captioners]
>>
>> ... So those -- those calls keep coming?
>> to appoint somebody would require us to post it, my guess is it would take us three or four weeks anyway. I know of four or five interested in the position.
>> uh-huh.
>> I'm sure that they would apply. If we were to appoint somebody it would give others the opportunity to at least submit an application. There would be an interview process.
>> right, uh-huh.
>> I think that the primary process is going to tell us an awful lot. And it seems like that's 90 to 120 days. My preference would be to take up the judges on their very kind offer to fill in until I think it was January 2nd, and then that we continue to use visiting judges to handle county court at law 5's business and let the primary give us an appointment.
>> people understand that, but they still think that there's value in us appointing someone.
>> I respect that. But the primary is happening so quickly and that's where this is going to get sorted out very quickly. That way those good folks can spend their quality time wooing the voters and not the five of us.
>> I second your motion.
>> primary is what.
>> March 9th.
>> we indicate our intention not to fill our vacancy at this time but to take the judges up on their offer to use salary savings for this judgeship to compensate a visiting judge to help cover these duties between now and the primary.
>> uh-huh.
>> primary or the runoff, whatever, figuring out, the primary may go into a runoff simply because of the number. Is it possible as a friendly, I'm going to throw this one in there. In that as much as possible that there be some kind of I will use the word consistency related to the using after visiting judge. The last thing that I want to see is that there would be a different visiting judge every single day in that court. You know the way they handled it during the maternity leave they used the same judge for chunks and I think they wound up having three different judges used but they wound up having it so that somebody was there consistently over a certain period of time.
>> we can could leave that to the judge's discretion.
>> I think that's their business. If we don't think they can do a good job, I don't think we ought to --
>> right. I think they can make that adult.
>> in what case -- they can mall that call.
>> the alternative is to fill the vacancy.
>> I will do it this way. They did a great job of handling the maternity leave in terms of the strategy that they used to fill during the maternity leave. I hope that they continue to use that kind of good thinking strategy.
>> are you retracting your friendly.
>> yes [laughter]
>> they have already heard from me.
>> they have already heard it. They had a great strategy during the maternity leave, I look forward to seeing that continue, lovely strategy. [laughter]
>> do we need a second.
>> I seconded it.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
Last Modified: Tuesday, December 3, 2003 6:52 AM