County to accept Title IV‑E child‑representation funding; criminal court attorney‑fee budget moves to CLS

Travis County on Sept. 3 approved actions to expand legal representation for children and parents and to realign existing attorney‑fee budgets.

County staff said a Title IV‑E funding entitlement from the state will bring an estimated $1,200,000 annually to the county for child and parental representation; the auditor agreed to certify half of that amount now, allowing the county to budget $600,000 in the coming year. County executives and Community & Legal Services (CLS) recommended budgeting the $600,000 for staff and operational needs to allow child and parental representation offices to resume or expand case intake. Staff noted the county already has a contract with the state for this funding.

The court authorized PBO to add the $600,000 in revenue and an associated $600,000 in expenditures and also to increase the one‑time unallocated reserve by $59,459 to meet reserve rules triggered by increased budgeted revenue.

Separately, the court approved a no‑cost transfer to move criminal court attorney‑fee budget line items and one FTE from the criminal courts into CLS so CLS can manage payments for appointed private counsel and related program administration. Jeff Burkhart, CLS executive, described the move as an administrative realignment; the criminal district judges will continue to set fee schedules under the Code of Criminal Procedure but the budget for those expenditures will reside in CLS.

Why it matters: The Title IV‑E funds will expand publicly provided child and parental representation capacity at a time when the private bar's capacity for those cases is limited, CLS officials said. Moving attorney‑fee budgets into CLS centralizes administrative oversight of appointed counsel payments.