True Bill, Volume 6, Number 4, July-August 1985 Page: 4
80 p.View a full description of this periodical.
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General News
AUTO4
w f,
A oF - rF
How the Council Died
Two top-notch investigative reporters
shed light on the Council's demise. The first
article is by Karen Hastings for the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram. The second, by Ken
Herman, is an Associated Press release.
ERROR DEALT FINAL BLOW TO
PROSECUTOR COUNCIL
by Karen Hastings, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
It was the kind of tight-fisted legislative
session that had every sacred cow, every
ivory tower and every sacrosanct state
agency quaking. When the dust had cleared,
however, only a few had been felled by the
budget ax.
One was an intensely controversial
agency that many believed had misused its
authority to regulate hospital construction.
Another was a marine and coastal research
agency that hadn't studied much of anything
in four years.
And another was a small 7-year-old
agency supported by virtually every major
district attorney in the state, with the kindof name that should have found favor with
law-and-order legislators: the Texas
Prosecutors [sic] Council. It died in one of
the final days of the session, brought down
not by a vote of the majority but by the
kind of technical printing error that usually
is ignored.6
Rep. Charles Evans of Hurst, who was
shepherding a group of bills that included the
Prosecutors [sic] Council, remembers being
shocked when a "point of order" was called
on the error. "I was shocked when it went
down on a point of order, because I thought
it was all worked out," said Evans, adding
that there was no time later to correct the
error and bring the bill back up for a vote.
"We got sabotaged, no question about
it," said Tarrant County District Attorney
Tim Curry, chairman of the council. "But I
just can't tell you by whom."
Why the Prosecutors [sic] Council died,
when other agencies survived, has turned into
a political whodunit, with plenty of suspects.
Was it an enemy in high places--House
Speaker Gib Lewis-who pulled the lethal
strings? Was it the agency's controversial
director, who clashed with legislators and
failed to make a persuasive case for
continued funding? Or was it the agency
itself-created to police, train and help
provide technical assistance to prosecutors
around the state--which just didn't meet the
tough budget squeeze test?
In the end it was all of the above, plus
the bad luck of coining up for sunset review
before the Texas Legislature of 1985.
The Prosecutors [sic] Council was
created in 1977 after an ornery Wichita Falls
district attorney was disbarred but refused to
resign his elected office.
Council Director Andy Shuval, himself a
former district attorney from Deaf Smith
County. said the state needed a way to
investigate complaints against elected
prosecutors and--when necessary-take steps
to remove them from office.
Since its creation, the council had grown
to a $600,000 a year agency with a $54,500
per year director. Shuvall [sic] says the4
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Texas. Prosecutor Council. True Bill, Volume 6, Number 4, July-August 1985, periodical, 1985-07/1985-08; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth903134/m1/4/: accessed May 31, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.