City Council voted unanimously Thursday to direct the city manager to discontinue the city’s participation in a state Department of Public Safety program that places holds on driver’s licenses when people fail to pay or miss payments on class C misdemeanors, such as speeding tickets or driving without insurance. Council took action after hearing from […]
Austin City Council Judicial Committee
A City Council Committee once tasked with oversight of the city’s courts and related issues. This committee was renamed in 2020, and the new Public Safety Committee has an expanded role that includes review of policing issues, emergency medical services, fire services, criminal justice and related matters.
Posted inCourts
Municipal court cases linger longer these days
Four years ago, the Austin Municipal Court generally took under 190 days to close cases. The number of days has since gone up to roughly 215 days, due to Senate Bill 1913 passed by the Texas Legislature in 2017, said Mary Jane Grubb, Austin Municipal Court clerk, at the Feb. 10 City Council Judicial Committee […]
Posted inCity Council
Council tells staff: Get municipal court move done
So far, the process of reviewing plans and preparing for relocation of the Austin Municipal Court has been “very, very extensive,” according to Municipal Court Clerk Mary Jane Grubb. Impatient with the lagging timeline, City Council is pressing staffers to wrap up the move as soon as possible. In preparing to move the court from […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Community leverages conundrum over hemp to advocate for marijuana decriminalization
Despite the technical difficulty of distinguishing marijuana from legal industrial hemp, the Austin Police Department told the City Council Judicial Committee on Tuesday that the city cannot afford to let the possession and sale of marijuana go unchecked. However, several members of City Council and many community justice advocates question the value of spending taxpayer […]
Posted inCity Hall
South station closure marks start of municipal court facilities shuffle
A significant shuffling of operations is in store for Austin Municipal Court in the coming months, thanks in large part to Friday’s permanent closure of the court’s south substation on Manchaca Road. The closure will leave South Austin residents with two locations – the main Municipal Court building on East Seventh Street and the north […]
Posted inCity Hall
Judicial Committee recommends against reappointment of five judges
City Council’s Judicial Committee acted in swift unity Monday morning, voting unanimously to recommend a slate of Municipal Court judge appointments that did not include five sitting judges. The vote came after a change in the recommendation process and increased Council scrutiny on how the Municipal Court handles indigent cases following a 2015 lawsuit. “These […]