Veterans Court funded for second year
Glitch had led officials to believe state money for special court had been cut.
As Mark Twain might have said about Williamson County Veterans Court: Reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated.
An apparent communications mix-up between the governor’s office and county government this month led local officials to believe state-grant funding, for the court’s second year, had been discontinued. But Kathy Pierce, executive assistant to Precinct 2 Commissioner Cynthia Long, confirmed last week the county will receive $104,000 in veterans court funding for the year ahead. That’s the same amount the program received in its first year.
The county had requested $112,000 in grant funding, but Pierce said nobody’s complaining.
“All I said is, ‘Thank you very much,’” Pierce said she told the governor’s office, after an initial denial letter from the criminal justice division turned out to not be accurate. “You cannot know how appreciative we are. We are just as grateful as we can be.”
Pierce said the grant provides half the salary of a court coordinator and a full salary for a case manager.
Now in place for about 18 months, 18 military veterans have been enrolled in the special program for accused misdemeanor offenders. Nine have graduated and one has been dismissed for failure to company with probation conditions.
As with the county’s specialized court for certain drunken driving and drug cases, veterans court participants are misdemeanor-level offenders who must apply and be approved for inclusion.
Most of the defense attorneys participating in the program donate the time they spend representing veterans court clients, Pierce said.
Former Court-at-Law No. 2 Judge Tim Wright was instrumental in getting the veterans court started and initially oversaw its operations. Now, Court-atLaw No. 2 Judge Laura Barker, who succeeded Wright, is managing the program. Barker also oversees the drunken driving and drug court, as Wright did before her.
“I’ve only been there now a little over a month, but I can tell you these programs truly make a difference,” Barker told the Commissioners Court this month.
The veterans court team also includes a substance-abuse specialist from Round Rock-based Bluebonnet Trails MHMR.
“Which really helps the project team make informed decisions, if somebody has issues with substance abuse and is self-medicating,” Pierce said. “A lot of their charges have been DWIs, public intoxication, marijuana possession, that sort of thing.”