The Whitesboro City Council made some changes to the makeup of the city’s municipal court at its most recent meeting.
City Clerk Rachael Dockery will continue to serve as an Associate Municipal Court Judge. The city will also hire an attorney to act as the Presiding Municipal Court Judge going forward.
The move comes after Dockery addressed the council at its last meeting about the growth the court has seen recently.
The Municipal Court handles traffic cases, fine-only criminal cases and violations of city ordinances.
Dockery told the council that the court generally sees between six to eight jury trials each year but the anticipated continued growth in the area could lead to a need for changes to the structure of the court.
City Administrator Phil Harris said they reviewed what other similar cities are doing and most have a municipal judge who is an attorney.
Harris said the need to have an attorney serve as the municipal judge in some cases is intensified by the fact that Dockery’s husband works as the chief of the Whitesboro Police Department and having her serve as the judge of the court could potentially give at least the appearance of a conflict of interest.
“I will tell you that it is my experience that they work very hard to make sure that that doesn’t occur,” Harris said.
“But this (change) eliminates that problem,” he continued.
He said the change would also allow Rachael Dockery to help people who come into the office looking for assistance with the procedures involved in resolving any issues that they may have before the court.
“This gets her in a (place) where she can actually help the citizens walk through the process because at this point with her serving as judge, she has to tell them that she can’t hear their story. She can help them to get them to make a decision, but she can’t give them more guidance on what maybe what would be in their best interest.”
He said there isn’t any dissatisfaction with the way the situation is currently being handled, this step is just a way to move things forward to avoid problems down the road.
Dockery said that a lot of the local municipal courts in the county have both a judge and a court clerk. Right now, she said, the Whitesboro Municipal Court has a session once a week.
“That keeps the docket smaller because I do the job in here at the bench and then once I see everybody then they have to wait at the window so I can run back in and do the court clerk duty as far as taking money and signing the actual paperwork for the different dispositions,” she explained.
She said if they had a presiding judge, that person could be dealing with the pleas and then she could assist with the post judgement paperwork.
She added that will make the process shorter for the citizens who appear before the court.
Harris said Rachael Dockery’s hours would not change with the new system.
The attorney judge would be paid by the hour as needed for the dockets.
City Alderman Ben Edwards moved that the city make the change, and Alderman Su Welch seconded the motion. No one voted against the matter.
Source: Vecteezy.com