Terry County Commissioners met on Monday morning, January 24 with only Commissioners Ernesto Elizardo and Kirby Keesee present. As Judge Butch Wagner can also be a voting member of the Court, a quorom was established.
The Commissioners heard the 2021 Report from Justice of the Peace Angie Garza. Judge Garza’s report showed that the Terry County Sheriff’s Department has had a large increase in bringing in revenue, due to the addition of radar into the department’s vehicles. The SO has issued 149 citations in the approximately five months they have had the radar equipment.
Sheriff’s Department Citations showed $44,273.20 in fines assessed from traffic violations, with 63.55% of those collected.
The Texas Department of Public Safety showed a decrease in citations issued from 2020. In 2020, DPS wrote 1382 citations in Terry County. There were only 601 DPS citations issued in 2021. $181,622.60 in fines were assessed, with the collection rate being 64.74%.
Judge Garza stated that the new computer accessing system implemented in the JP office has been a huge asset in collecting unpaid fines. Her records show fines being collected from all the way back to 2016 with the new system.
Sheriff Timothy Click gave his required annual Racial Profiling Report. The report showed that there were a total of 309 stops made in 2021 by the SO. Of those, 103 were female, and 26 were male. 153 of these stops were identified as “white” after the stop was made. 134 were listed as hispanic. 22 were identified as black.
The Court also approved the motion to accept bids for possibly two new Sheriff Department vehicles.
The Terry County Law Enforcement Center also requested permission to hire two new employees to replace vacant positions. This was approved.
The remainder of the meeting consisted of mostly routine business.
The Court will next meet on Monday, February 14, at 10 a.m. in the Basement Meeting Room of the Courthouse.
