By Ariel Lumbard

 

Bee Cave may soon see its municipal court become a court of record — as well as some big changes in how outstanding warrants are handled.

Bee Cave Municipal Court Judge Jack Stick asked the council at its meeting Tuesday, Sept. 23, to consider making the municipal court a court of record.

“Bee Cave is a big city during the day and is a growing city at night,” Stick said. “And I think it’s time that the city take the steps to becoming a court of record.”

In Texas, courts of record keep transcripts of proceedings — thus preventing ticketed citizens from taking advantage of a loophole in the law that would allow them to request a new trial at the county level.

If someone wanted to avoid paying the City of Bee Cave for a ticket, appealing it at the Travis County courthouse would be the way to do it, according to Stick.

Currently, any traffic citation issued in the city could be appealed to county court —and essentially disappear into a “huge black hole” in the county courthouse, according to Stick.

“The reality is that no county judge is ever, ever going to hear a speeding ticket,” he said.

Making the court one of record would also give the city the ability to issue search warrants — currently the police department has to get warrants from a justice of the peace or from county district court.

“I think that as the city grows, it’s critically important the police have the ability at any time on very short notice to get search warrants,” Stick said.

Stick also told the council that the court had just written off about $150,000 in warrants when he started in the summer.

“It’s both a huge hit from the city’s perspective, and then I also think it sends the wrong message to the individuals who had those warrants outstanding,” he said.

The court still has several hundred thousand dollars of unpaid warrants that are out there, according to Stick.

“It’s not really the job of the municipal court to make money for the city,” he said. “On the other hand it’s not really the job of the municipal court to ignore the fact that people owe money.”

While the court had been using the county constable’s office to serve warrants; it has begun to explore new ways that warrants could be resolved faster.

One idea has been to use a light duty officer from the city’s police department to make phone calls to people with outstanding warrants.

“You’d be surprised, or maybe you wouldn’t be surprised, that a phone call from a police officer who reminds you that you missed your court date and now you’ve got a warrant attached to it,” Stick said. “And if you don’t come down and pay it in the next seven days he’ll arrest you — has a remarkable effect on their willingness to pay.”

The general plan would call for an officer to come in and work four hours making warrant calls about once a week.

“The first three months a warrant would remain with the city and we’d try to execute it,” Police Chief Rusty Pancoast said.

The police department and court have been trying out the method recently, and so far the cost-benefit analysis looks pretty good, according to Pancoast.

Stick told the council he believed the court could resolve the vast majority of outstanding warrants this year.

The council appeared supportive of the new approach to servicing warrants.

“To me it just seems like we’ve discovered something here, and so far at least early results are good,” Councilman Steve Braasch said.