The Collin County Observer

The Collin County Commissioners will likely have a rare opportunity to appoint two County Court at Law judges in the upcoming months.

The Governor's recent appointment of Court at Law #4 Judge Ray Wheless to replace Greg Brewer in the 366th District Court leaves a vacancy in Court at Law #4.

Informed speculation is that County Court at Law #6 Judge Greg Willis will resign this fall to either seek the nomination for County District Attorney or for the open seat on the 219th District Court. (Both District Attorney John Roach and District Judge Curt Henderson have announced they will not seek re-election.)

Chapter 25 of the Texas Government Code specifies that:

"The commissioners court of each county shall appoint a person to fill a vacancy in the office of judge of a statutory county court."

"(b) The appointee holds office until the next general election and until the successor is elected and has qualified."

On the agenda for Monday night's special commissioners Court session is Agenda Item 10, "Filling the vacancy in County Court at Law No. 4."

It is widely expected that the court will defer the nomination of a successor to Judge Wheless and will ask the Executive Committee of the Collin County Republican Party to nominate a candidate for appointment to the Court at Law #4 bench.

This author believes that asking political party operatives to choose our judges is overly politicizing the judicial selection process.

The law and the Texas Constitution are explicit. The Commissioners Court selects the new judges, not the Republican Party.

While it is true that anyone selected by the court will very likely run for election in November, there is no need to cut the deck in favor of political hacks. In Texas, the people, through voting at the polls, choose those among them to sit in judgment in the court rooms. In those times when it is necessary to temporarily appoint a judge between elections, the law allows elected leaders to make the selection on the behalf of the people. Nowhere in the constitution or the law does Texas give the right of judicial selection to the Executive Committee of any political party.

By abdicating their responsibility to choose replacement judges, the Commissioners Court seems to hold the judicial selection process to a much lower standard than the founders of the State of Texas.

Unfortunately judicial selection is already over politicized. One result is that Collin County has already been beset by more than their share of poor judges.

The Commissioners Court has an opportunity to act as wise leaders by searching for and appointing the most qualified judges they can find. Or they can perpetuate the current mediocrity by allowing political committees to perform the job we elected our commissioners to do.

Bill

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Update, September 21:

An attorney's opinion that the wording of this evening's agenda was ambiguous caused the Commissioners Court to decline to vote on any agenda issue.

Nevertheless, the subject of judicial appointments came up for public comment and discussion.

After listening to citizens opinions, Joe Jaynes floated the idea that the county should wait until after the primary to fill any vacancies on the Court at Law benches. In the meanwhile, Jaynes suggested that retired, visiting judges be used to fill in any gaps, noting that because the county did not have to pay benefits to visiting judges, they would save up to $30,000 by not appointing permenant replacements now.

The court did take a straw vote and they supported Jaynes proposal 4 - 1 (Shaheen dissenting). Final discussion and voting will be at the next court session on Monday, September 28.

Bill