Taylor County Commissioners approve $27,000 for jury service outreach campaign
By Makalah Wright
The Taylor County Commissioners Court met on July 14, holding their first regular meeting of the month.
Local administrative judge Jeff Propst discussed a budget request for a public outreach campaign to promote jury service. With a goal of $25,000, Propst hopes that the funds support the response rate of jury service and to increase civic responsibility. This comes after a sharp decline in response rate from jury summons cards in recent years, with a threshold of 16% to 20% of respondents.
Propst believes that implementing a digital card for the public could potentially increase participation and awareness.
“If they’ll (the citizens) do it, it’s going to be quite a bit better. It’s going to allow them to put exemptions requests in the first place — it’s going to allow them to defer their jury service if they are called for a week,” he said.
District Attorney James Hicks also spoke on the item, stating that there has to be an appropriate amount of jurors to take on a case, but it’s determined from qualified drawers that are willing to show up in the courtroom. “When we receive a hundred (drawers), that means that we might be able to qualify one felony jury trial and one misdemeanor jury trial,” Hicks said.
As the commissioners discussed the participation and possible advertisement options, they approved for $27,000 to support the campaign run.
Bracewell Medical representative Shelby Harden was present at the meeting to speak about the capital improvements to one or more facilities by Hendrick Medical Center, and the approval of bonds by Judge Crowley. In regards to the item, a public hearing was held on July 7 following public notice of the bonds, which detailed the purposes of section 147(f) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and that Hendrick has met the requirements for such purposes.
The commissioners approved the hearing that was held on July 7, as well as the capital improvements for Hendrick Medical Center.
