February 29, 2008 10:34 am
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Q: What qualities do you possess that you feel would make you a successful county attorney?
A: One is that I have experience as a business manager. I have held various management and leadership positions for the past 15 years. I have been a licensed attorney for the past six years. I have handled a variety of cases and have served as chief operating officer for a corporation in the Houston area. For the last three years I have had a general practice where again, I have handled a variety of cases, everything from criminal defense work to family law cases, cases involving business organizations, business contracts and real estate work.
One key attribute that I possess that is often overlooked is a sincere desire to do a better job than the next person, work hard and serve the people of the county.
Q: The county attorney handles misdemeanor cases, which can sometimes be an offender’s first brush with the legal system. Is there anything the county attorney can do to keep these offenders from progressing to more serious crimes?
A: I believe that the county attorney’s office should play a major role in prohibiting these misdemeanor offenders from going out and committing future crimes. I know a lot of today’s misdemeanor offenders are tomorrow’s felony offenders.
It’s also key in that respect that many of the cases handled in the County Attorney’s Office involve juvenile cases. A lot of it begins at the juvenile level. Part of doing a good job of prosecuting your misdemeanor offenders is to deter those people from committing further crime. One way to do that is through the use of probation. In Henderson County probation is not used enough on a misdemeanor type offense. If you look at the statistics in Henderson County, your felony probationers outnumber misdemeanor probations two to one. What’s odd about that statistic is it is exactly inverse for every other county in the state.
I believe that’s a problem. We have a system now that emphasizes quantity over quality. We’re too concerned about shuffling the cases out the door and getting the case finally disposed of, rather than taking each case individually and tailoring it to the unique situation of the offender.
Q: You have stated that as county attorney you would attempt to be present at all commissioners court meetings. Why do you think that is important?
A: Our commissioners are given the extreme and often difficult task of managing our tax dollars and making decisions that will affect all of us. We’ve seen a lot of those decisions play out over the last three years. The most recent is the proposed move of some of the office facilities that are downtown to a parcel of land on the loop.
I have personally attended Commissioners Court meetings in past when on a legal question the commissioners have been left looking around as a group for guidance but there wasn’t any guidance in the room. I have heard from various department heads in the county that one of the problems of the present county attorney is he is inaccessible. He’s not accessible to the people of the county and to the departments in the county. I think your county attorney needs to attend those meetings to provide our commissioners with legal advice, legal counsel and advice on decisions that they are making.
Q: If you are elected, what task or issue will be you address first when you assume office?
A: The first task would take place the day I took office. I am running on a full-time platform. Unlike the present county attorney who has a private law practice, I will not have a private law practice.
Another area I would go right to work on is right now there seems to be a lack of communication between the county attorney and all of the other departments. I believe we need a system in place that organizes or increases the communication between all of the county offices. One thing I have proposed is perhaps having a quarterly meeting where all of the department heads get together in some type of forum to discuss whatever issues arise within the various departments. Hopefully, that will help resolve some of the issues.
Q: There are now two county courts-at-law in Henderson County. How can the County Attorney’s Office keep pace with the growth of the number of cases handled in the two courts?
A: One key area that has been often overlooked in this campaign is — we’ve heard so much about the child abuse rate, the domestic violence abuse rate and the drug problem we’ve had here — the economic viability of our county. The county attorney is the civil attorney for the county. The county attorney can support our commissioners in a role that also supports economic growth and business growth in the county.
If you want to look at a model for progressive growth, look at Frisco, Texas. Frisco doesn’t have the economy it has because it has the best prosecutor in the world. Everyone would laugh if you said you could put the best prosecutor in the world in South Dallas and all of your problems would be resolved. If you look at the Henderson County economy, our median income wage has remained the same over the past 12 years. If you add inflation, it’s going down.
Right now we have a county attorney who has a plaintiff’s practice on the side and sues business and individuals in Henderson County. I find that practice to be unconscionable and detrimental to economic growth. I believe if we can improve our economy by supporting our business and Commissioners Court better we can possibly eliminate some of the crime, drug problem, spousal abuse and child abuse that is going on in our county.
Q: You have said the county must have a good relationship with East Texas Medical Center. In light of the recent settlement between the county and the hospital, do you think there is a good relationship now? How would you maintain that?
A: I don’t believe that relationship has been fully restored. I do believe it needs to be restored, not just because it is the hospital in town and we all know how important that is, but also because it is the largest employer in the county. The hospital is right now looking at an expansion that could go over $30 million dollars. Again, that would have a positive impact on the county economy by bringing in jobs. Until we put what has happened in the past, in the past, and restore that relationship, I’m not sure that plan will move forward the way it should.
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Clint Davis