The El Paso Times editorial Stubborn judges should back down took the El Paso Council of Judges to task for their “unilateral decision to raise indigent defense fees”.
They wrote:
“These judges, who were not elected to make budget and tax decisions, have decided nonetheless to levy added costs amounting to about $500,000 the remainder of this year and $1 million next year. That forces the people who were elected to make such decisions — county Commissioners Court — to cut money elsewhere or raise taxes”.
Actually
The judges do have the right and the responsibility to set the rate of reimbursement. The Times knows this and even wrote in their December 27, 2013 editorial:
“The Council of Judges’ recent unilateral decision to raise attorney fees in indigent defense cases by $15 an hour is a classic example of the dysfunctional system set up by the Texas Constitution.”
Further, according to the Times:
“The judges requested a $10 an hour increase for attorney fees in indigent defense cases before the county budget was adopted in October. Commissioners rejected that proposal because the funding wasn’t available.”
Who’s wrong
The judges made a request for an increase in the reimbursement rate as part of the normal county budget process. The commissioners decided not to honor it.
The judges have the authority to set the rate. Commissioners have to pay it. Pretty simple really.
We elect judges in Texas. If our voters don’t approve of what they have done we will see new judges in the next election.
The all knowing Times
The Times evidently feels that their judgment should trump the Texas Constitution.
They also evidently feel that while it was good for the city to pay more than market value for the Times building it is not good for lawyers to get paid a fair rate to defend people who cannot afford a lawyer. Now they are taking on the United States Constitution.
How would the Times have responded if the city had used eminent domain to steal their building, or if the city had used code violations to condemn the building and then steal it?
Unjust enrichment
Before the rate increase local lawyers were paid $75 per hour when they worked in court. Most of us pay more for plumbing.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Let us face the fact that Bob Moore’s El Paso Times does not even read it’s own editorials. Can we all agree on that? And while we are at it, let us also face the fact that the Times is about two steps above a high school newspaper when it comes to fact checking, spell checking, grammar checking and reliability.
We live in a time when our sole daily English language newspaper is essentially run by the powers that be in this town, and even though they deny it on a stack of bibles, their actions speak much louder than their words.
If we all just accept the fact that the Times and KVIA are nothing more than mouthpieces for the El Paso power elite, then we can enjoy it for what it is, and we can stop wishing for something that it will never be, at least not until Bob “I won an award look at me look at me!” Moore leaves and the current publisher is replaced.
Why, oh why can’t El Diario produce an English language edition?
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Deputy — I agree with everything you said except that an English language edition of El Diario is not the solution.
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Agree about El Diario, although I enjoy reading it in Spanish…however, check your own dictionary, “it’s own editiorials” is not the spelling that I learned in school!
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Helen,
Shouldn’t that be:
“I agree with you about El Diario, although I do enjoy reading the Spanish version. Please check your use of “It’s.” The proper spelling I learned in school was “its.”
She who lives in glass houses dear should not throw stones.
Now, shall we return to the topic at hand?
Dawg
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I don’t believe the Texas Constitution establishes the Council of Judges. El Paso is the only county that has these. Could be mistaken. Does anyone know? Either way, raising public defender attorneys’ fee right now doesn’t sound like a good idea to me. Not with so many other county expenses going up. Attorneys can always set their own rates for cases not assigned to them.
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A good plumber is worth $75/hour, especially when you need one. A lawyer, well…
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Hey, if you find yourself needing a good lawyer you will probably be well advised to pay $75 an hour! Hope that you don’t!
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It’s (as in “it is”) also OK in the El Paso Times Bible when an unelected board of managers at EPISD, pushed and pimped by its editorial pages and most favored progresseive politicos, makes spending decisions for a public entity like the school district. It’s seemingly OK by Mr. Moore and co for this unelected group to make decisions about taxes on those who voted for representatives that are not allowed to exercise the function. Just wait for them to figure out how to make up for that now $11++ Million shortfall, thanks to the great benefactors polluting refinery. But then, integrity and good journalism do not jive with the times.
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150 mill for new clinics for the indigent . why dont they just make a clinic in the soon to be broke(or already broke) children’s hospital and let them take a bus or ambulance. but yet, the times editorial board along with vince perez and escobar are crying about the raised attorney fees passed by the judges causing problems with the budget . give me a fookin break.
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