Wood County Commissioners got a blistering report during the County Judge Lucy Hebron’s 2019 year in review update Tuesday. 

Hebron went into detail about her first year in office.

“I started my judicial duties with over 1,600 carryover cases from the previous judge. The judicial duties of the county judge include criminal, civil, probate, mental competency matters and juvenile cases,” Hebron explained. “Seeking to evaluate this unusually large carryover and the administration of this court in general – speaking of the county court, not the commissioner’s court – I invited the office of court administration from Austin to evaluate Wood County Court as a starting point.

“This evaluation of time standards, disposition rates and general court procedures resulted in the court consultants finding that this court was quote ‘an under-performing court’ and I quote directly, and garnered Wood County a rating in the bottom five percent of 254 county courts in Texas.”  

Hebron talked about her support of Wood County. 

“I am Wood County’s biggest cheerleader and I believe the county judge sets the standard for this county. All of my efforts have involved planning, coordination and listening,” Hebron noted. “From that come ideas, best practices and tools we can use in our county which have already been implemented successfully in comparable counties which all resulted in a better quality of life, economic development and a prosperous planned future for a growing Wood County.”

The process of assessing departments consisted of evaluating them followed by extensive guidance and planning to help department heads bring their offices into professional, financial and legal compliance.

“Of those we’ve got three outstanding departments who deliver exceptional and professional services to those they serve and I personally repeatedly receive positive comments or notes of thanks from those that they serve,” Hebron claimed. “And those offices I’m going to give a shout out to publicly are emergency management, our veteran’s service office and our indigent health care office. Unfortunately we have some departments which are out of compliance regarding professional, financial and legal guidelines.

“This all translated to legal and financial liability, to decades old procedures, lack of job descriptions, inefficient or non-use of technology, lack of training, lack of professionalism and a lack of transparency, all of which translate into a needless waste of taxpayer money.”  

The commissioners meeting will be reported in more detail for next week’s Monitor due to deadline constraints.