Travis County disputes APD statement about initial price tag of magistration agreement

Austin Monitor
BY JO CLIFTON
FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 2024

City Council is expected to consider an interlocal agreement with Travis County next week to provide magistration services, including screening of those arrested for a variety of crimes. The reported price tag on that agreement is $9.9 million, although the city had not posted the Council agenda as of Thursday afternoon. A spokesperson for the agenda office said they were working to get it posted by early Friday afternoon.

At Monday’s meeting of the Public Safety Commission, APD Chief of Staff Jeff Greenwalt said the original price Travis County proposed for that contract was $14.5 million, more than double what the city paid in the past. Previously, the city paid $6.9 million per year.

On Thursday, however, a spokesperson for Travis County told the Austin Monitor that the county never proposed a $14.5 million price tag for magistration services. Hector Nieto, public information officer for Travis County, said Travis County’s original proposal was that the city pay $10.9 million “with the caveat that we needed the city’s updated expenses so we could refine that model.” He said there was one year when costs were not updated and that needed to be done.

That first meeting was in July, Nieto said, and following that meeting the county received updated information, so the figure was lowered to $10.3 million. Nieto said the county and the city had more discussions, and the county finally agreed to lower the price of the interlocal agreement to $9.9 million. That figure was shared with APD Assistant Director Michelle Schmidt in an email on Sept. 19, and that is the figure Council is expected to consider next week.

The Monitor contacted Greenwalt but did not hear back from him by the end of the day on Thursday. On Monday, Greenwalt said Austin might be able to save money by having APD do the work of Travis County’s pretrial services and proposed a “mock” version of the effort. He said they would probably be able to do that in February but acknowledged that the process was more complex than they had originally anticipated.

Council Member Chito Vela is a criminal defense attorney, and although his Council duties keep him busy, in the past he has practiced law in about 25 different counties. He said Thursday that dealing with magistration and other aspects of law enforcement in a variety of places has given him a good perspective. “Travis County has what is probably the best magistration system in the state,” he said.

The majority of those arrested in Travis County, probably about 70 percent, Vela estimated, qualify for personal bond. That means they must follow certain guidelines attached to their release – for example, not driving if they were arrested for DWI – but it means they can be released from jail without having to pay a bail bondsman.

In addition to investigating whether a person is eligible to be released without posting cash bail, Travis County Pretrial Services does an evaluation for alcohol and drug abuse, he noted. Jails throughout the United States, including Travis County, house a number of people who have mental illnesses. While Travis County has been offering pretrial services for quite some time, Vela said other counties have generally not done such a good job. He noted that the Texas Legislature passed a law this year requiring arresting agencies to provide the sorts of services that Travis County has been doing for years.

Vela said, “Central Booking runs very well. And I don’t know how we’re going to save any money from duplicating an existing process that runs very well.” He added, “I don’t understand the goals” of the APD proposal, “and my fear would be we’re going to end up with a system that takes up more of our officers’ time, and (we would) have less informed magistration decisions.”

However, Vela said he wondered if other jurisdictions in Travis County, such as Manor and West Lake Hills, were paying their fair share of the costs of magistration. Nieto told the Monitor that Austin is paying only for Austin’s share of the bookings into the jail, about 65 percent as of 2022. “Their cost in the (interlocal agreement) is reflective of that amount. They do not subsidize other governmental entities that also use Travis County’s magistration process,” he said.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.