Justice of the Peace offices are included in elimination of county hiring freeze

The Facts
By GAYLA MURPHY gayla.murphy@thefacts.com
May 3, 2023

ANGLETON — Justices of the peace weren’t frozen out after all.

Pct. 2 Commissioner Ryan Cade rescinded his motion to maintain the county’s hiring freeze for the Brazoria County’s eight Justice of the Peace offices, meaning the judges were included with all other departments when commissioners lifted the freeze during their April 24 meeting. A story in Tuesday’s edition of The Facts wrongly stated the JPs remained under the freeze.

The freeze, which the court put in place last September, resulted in a savings of $757,000 for the county in the last six months.

Questions over whether to single out the JPs centered on the shifting workloads of each court caused by the county redistricting its precincts. The change has seen some courts handling a much larger number of cases while others have seen their loads lessen.

“The Justice of the Peace Department redistricting has assumed potentially more responsibility,” Cade said. “With that reshuffling, there’s some that don’t have the load they had at one point. I’m just throwing it out there. Is that a department that makes sense to keep a hiring freeze on so that we can reshuffle that deck the way it needs to be shuffled so that everyone has adequate support?”

Sebesta expressed his opposition to the proposal.

“I will just say, I was all for where we were at a few minutes ago except I am not there on the hiring freeze on the JPs,” Sebesta said.

He proposed the eight judges discuss how they can shifting positions among their offices so those with larger caseloads can fill the positions to meet their needs, Sebesta said.

After the discussion, Cade rescinded his motion, saying Sebesta’s suggested compromise could be effective.

“At the end of the day, I just want to make sure the deck is shuffled correctly,” Cade said in a follow-up interview. “I didn’t care how we got there, just that we got there. It’s not about getting my way, just that it gets done.”

Justice of the Peace Pct. 3 Place 2 Roy Castillo still addressed the court to request creating a new court clerk for his office, which would require commissioners’ approval because it is unbudgeted, Sebesta said. The request gained approval on a 3-2 vote, with Sebesta and Commissioner Dude Payne voting against.