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City manager urges council to close decade‑old citation backlog, focus prosecution on recent cases
Summary
City Manager Miss Pearson said municipal-court records are incomplete and recommended closing citations with expired statutes before 2024 so limited staff can prosecute 350–500 recent cases; she estimated recoverable revenue of roughly $82,000–$100,000 if pursued timely.
City Manager Miss Pearson told the council the municipal‑court citation backlog stretches back about a decade and includes more than 1,000 tickets; Texas law imposes a two‑year statute of limitations for these offenses in many cases. "The backlog is about a decade at least," Pearson said, explaining that records were destroyed or improperly scanned under the prior administration and that there is uncertainty about which charging documents were timely filed.
Pearson recommended formally directing staff to close out citations with expired statutes (pre‑2024) and concentrate limited court resources on the roughly 350–500 citations from August 2024 onward to collect what the city can. She said that prosecuting the timely cases could yield between $82,000 and $100,000 in revenue but that the city lacks the finances to audit or litigate older cases. Council provided informal guidance favoring that option so staff can prioritize current and recently issued citations.
