Good afternoon, everyone.

The time is now two o two PM on May twenty-seventh, twenty twenty-six, and the meeting of the municipal court advisory committee is now called to order.

Madam Clerk, please call roll.

Councilwoman Biagran.

Here.

Councilwoman Alderete Gavito.

Here.

Councilwoman Councilman White?

Councilman Mungier.

Present.

Chair McKee Rodriguez.

Present.

Chair, we have quorum.

Wonderful, thank you.

Uh, thank you all so much for being here today.

I look forward to getting through all twenty-three interviews, I believe it is.

Uh, first item though on the agenda is approval of the minutes from February twenty-fifth, twenty twenty-six.

Uh, entertain a motion for approval.

Second.

We have a motion second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Motion carries unanimously.

I don't believe there are any members of the public sign to speak.

So item two is consideration of applicants for municipal court judge.

There are ten full-time and twelve part-time positions to fill.

All current judges did apply for reappointment, and other attorneys also submitted applications.

There are 14 candidates for full-time judges and twelve candidates for part-time judges.

During the interview process, we'll seek to establish that the applicants meet the statutory and charter qualifications for municipal court judge.

All current judges' terms expired April 30th, 2026, and they serve in a holdover capacity until the appointments are before the full council.

The terms of the new slate will expire April 30th, 2028.

And so following our review in an executive session, we will reconvene in the open session to deliberate and propose a slate for the full city council to consider and act upon at an upcoming A session.

Every candidate will be given uh do we decide two minutes or three minutes for opening?

Four minutes for opening statement, and then we'll have two minutes for opening statement, and then we'll have uh two questions for each of the applicants.

Who do we have to begin?

Oh, which Judge O'Beather.

Good afternoon, Chair and Committee members.

Um, so as you mentioned, there are uh ten full-time judges, funding for ten full-time judges and funding for twelve part-time judges.

Um, we are ready to get started.

We do have a schedule for the judges.

However, uh, I do have some of the judges still back at court running courts, so we may be a little bit out of order.

Are we going to be breaking into executive session to conduct the interviews?

Uh we will have we will have interviews and open session, but I will ask all other applicants aside from the one being interviewed, go into the presidio room.

Okay, then we'll need to go get your binders with the um applications and resumes.

We put them over in the other room.

We'll go get those.

Okay, thank you.

And if all applicants wouldn't mind stepping out as well.

I don't know, I have an interesting interface.

No, no, yes, ma'am.

And it's a display, we're happy to have a lot of work.

Oh, okay.

Are you ready to get started then?

Ready?

Okay, we're gonna step out then.

Judge Ball.

And then followed by Judge Cassio.

Good afternoon, Judge Abell.

Uh, we're gonna start off with two minute openings opening statement, and then we'll have one question.

We have two minutes to answer.

I'll try to give you some time back.

My name is Judge Kenneth Abell.

I'm a City of San Antonio municipal court judge.

I've been on the full time list since twenty two thousand twenty-two.

Uh, I started as a part timer in twenty eighteen.

And uh, I enjoy it a lot.

We stay busy over at the court.

I'm hoping to uh re-up the appointment and uh continue the work that we do.

I think you already have the the uh snapshot, but uh the court I deal with primarily most of the online dockets.

Those are all my dockets as well.

I support all of the trial dockets.

So when you're looking at my my snapshot, you'll see that I have administrative hearings, trials, um, pretty much all of the courts over at the municipal court.

I I have the hand in at some point or time or another.

Uh, and I enjoy that fact.

Um other than that, I'm a San Antonio uh raised man.

I was uh came here when we were about five years old.

I've been here ever since.

I graduated from James Madison.

I left Texas, went to Langston University to get my undergrad in mathematics, theoretical mathematics, and then came back to St.

Mary's for law school.

Um I've been practicing here ever since.

That's all I have to give you.

I'm here for you any questions that you might have.

Thank you.

Council Member Mugheen.

Thank you.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

It goes back to uh training.

When you're in law school, you learn that you have to learn how to research.

You have to learn how to find the information that you need to actually make those decisions.

That translates currently into the CLEs.

You do real-time updates on all the areas of law.

It's a interesting issue with the municipal court because there are so many different areas of law, and you have to kind of remember that when you're doing your CLEs.

I do extra training through the bar, the Bar College through the state bar as well, just to make sure I'm on top of any issues that could arise.

So I spend less time researching, more time making those decisions and flushing out the issues.

Thank you so much.

Absolutely.

Thank y'all.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Judge Castillo.

Wonderful to see you.

We'll have two minutes for opening statement and then we'll have one question where you'll have two minutes to answer.

Okay, thank you.

Well, thank you all for the opportunity to interview.

My name is Melanie Castillo, and I currently serve as one of your City of San Antonio municipal court judges.

I started my service with the court in 2017 as a part-time evening and weekend judge.

So I did that because I was transitioning from or wanting to transition from the private sector into public service.

And I thought what a wonderful opportunity to apply all of the skills and knowledge I had gained as a practicing attorney, my new interest in serving a role in our criminal justice system and figuring out where my place was as a magistrate in that system.

I did that for a couple of years, working evenings, weekends, Snowmageddon, Christmas, everything, showed my commitment to the court, and I was reappointed in 2020 to serve as a full-time municipal court judge.

Then my role transitioned to the overnight mag judge or magistrate judge.

I did that for two years, continued to learn and grow with the court, and in 2022, transitioned over to the municipal court side of things, where I now oversee the trial docket.

Very proud that we went from utilizing two courtrooms to hold all of our trial and pretrial settings for traffic trials.

We now only use the court that I preside over, which is court five.

We've uh streamlined our processes, we've done everything we can to make the trial process very efficient for the citizens that come before us.

I also oversee now the minor docket on Fridays, so any minor that's charged with an alcohol-related offense.

And I also conduct the virtual dockets once a month and hoping to expand that if reappointed to multiple times per month because it's a huge asset for our community to be able to appear virtually before the court.

Some of the perks uh I think of my job are that I also get to be involved in the community in other ways.

Um, as you can see from my uh judicial report, I volunteer for almost every uh career day, uh high school opportunity to teach about safe driving.

Uh Judge Bell and I coordinated the first ever uh municipal court uh mock trial uh this past this month, actually, and we were uh very fortunate to have a couple of our council members participate and really enjoy that.

Oh, sorry.

Thank you.

Councilmember McGill.

Thank you.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

Um teamwork, relying on my amazing team.

Um, I couldn't do it without the support of our court clerks.

Um, both the courts, clerks in court five, uh, Robert and Stephanie help us really communicate with both the state and uh defendants that appear before us.

Uh they keep me incredibly organized, and uh truly, I think that uh court five and the court in in general runs smoothly because we have a wonderful team.

So really relying on their expertise and their ability to utilize the systems that we have in place to keep the court running efficiently.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Thank you.

We're efficient.

Judge trying to wonder.

Good afternoon, Judge.

Good afternoon.

We'll start off with a quick two-minute uh intro, introduce yourself, why you are seeking reappointment, and then we'll have a two-minute question for you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, and thank you for this opportunity.

I am Clarissa Chavaria, and I've been your municipal court judge for at least the last 15 going on 16 years.

I do appreciate this opportunity again to interview for this position.

It is a very important position for me because of the number of people I get to talk to daily.

I think that's the best part of the job.

Now I've been doing this since 2010.

Originally I was appointed to preside over the juvenile court department or section of our court, and at the time, all of the cases against the kiddos were uh punitive.

They were all, they're still criminal, but they were punitive in nature, and so there weren't any diversion processes.

So that's when we were seeing that.

In 2014, the law changed so that we had one centralized Bear County docket, and I thankfully was a part of that.

And again, we had another change in 2015 formally, and then another change again for 2025.

So I do want to continue doing this because there are so many more opportunities with this new diversion process to include a lot of these community initiatives that I know that is so important to the council and to our city, and these are young minds that we really need to focus a lot of our attention to, and also the parents.

So I think I'm going on to a different subject.

Before that, I was with the city attorney's office for about four and a half years, and before that, a totally different type of law was a civil litigation firm where I was there for about four and a half years, and we did a lot of cross-country, multiple state class action.

It was a lot of reading and writing and presenting in front of different courts.

But that's the extent of my legal history.

I think that my two minutes is up, but thank you for the time.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Mugia.

Thank you.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

I think that that's very important for me.

So I know that a lot of times we go very quickly, but I feel it's very important, at least and at the for the parents especially and the kids to understand why they're there, what they're there for, and what to expect.

So when I do a docket in front of the juveniles and the kids, I have the opportunity to speak to them as a group.

I'll explain their rights and their options.

If they have any questions, I encourage them to ask.

I do tell them that this is an educational process, this is a learning experience.

Please use this time to ask me.

I want to be relatable but yet professional, and so that's important that they're able to approach and ask me questions so that they don't walk out thinking what just happened to me.

Now, in the traffic court setting with the adults, it's a little different because we have them come in one at a time.

So each of those persons are kind of getting an opportunity very quickly to know what their options are, and then I'll explain and try to expand if they need that explanation.

So it's a little bit different on how I treat them, but I really want those kids and the parents to know what is going on and what they have in their hand when they leave.

Thank you so much.

That's all.

Oh, that's it.

Okay, great.

Thank you again.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Judge.

Thank you for being here.

You'll have uh two minutes for it's gonna feel very fast.

It's supposed to feel that way.

You'll have two minutes for your introduction, and then we'll have a question for you, and you'll have two minutes to respond.

Thank you.

Um, first of all, um thank you to the committee for having us today.

We really appreciate this opportunity to be able to talk to you one-on-one.

Um a little background about myself.

I've been licensed for 30 years.

Uh, I've been on the bench for 23 of those years.

I began my judicial career in 2003 when I was first appointed as a part-time municipal court judge and magistrate in 2005.

I segued into a juvenile associate position presiding over criminal cases, and I stayed in that position until 2018 for a total of 13 years.

I was appointed to this bench four years ago.

Um, my philosophy is simple.

It's safeguarding the rights of the accused while balancing it with accountability and safety for our community.

That's a little bit about me, so I'm ready.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Mungeon.

Thank you.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

I think first of all, we have a responsibility to be efficient when it comes to moving our dockets.

I firmly believe in being prepared, being punctual.

That's a very important aspect of it, and being able to move cases.

Keep in mind that an arraignment court, I don't know if many of you have visited how a Raymond Court is, it's a high uh volume, fast dockets.

It's gotta be a very um thought out, conscientious balance of being able to listen to citizens who feel that sometimes they're being wronged and and we're giving them their forum and their time to be able to say, hey, these are my concerns about my ticket, these are my financial constraints, and at the same time making them accountable.

So I tend to always, you know, be cognizant of people's times, whether it's defendant's time, whether it's attorney's time.

I am not one to shy away when the dockets get big that I ask for help from other judges because that's just kind of how we work with each other.

I know when I'm in my office doing my research and there's a judge on the busy dockets, which are usually the morning dockets, I open up that docket and I'm monitoring to see if if you get once you get to a certain amount of cases in the judge's queue, that usually signals me to go out there and say, hey, do you need help so I can help alleviate the docket?

So I'm always real cognizant of time and the uh constraints that we have because we are limited because it is high volume.

Thank you so much.

That concludes the interview.

Wow, that was fast.

That's all you.

Thank you all very much.

I'll have a nice afternoon.

Thank you.

You as well.

Okay.

Wonderful.

Good afternoon, Judge.

Good afternoon, thank you.

Thank you for being here.

You'll have uh two minutes for opening statement, and then we'll have one question, and you'll have two minutes to answer.

It's gonna feel very fast.

I understand.

So my name is Judge Daniel Guerrero.

I uh am a graduate of St.

Mary's Law School.

I graduated in 1988.

I have lived in San Antonio since 1985.

I uh after law school, I practice private uh privately.

Uh I practice criminal and civil law in 1997.

I was appointed to be a part-time magistrate.

I served in that capacity to 2001.

In 2001, I became a full-time judge and have been a full-time judge since then.

Um I think uh my objective and in serving on the bench has always been to try to balance um these safety of the community with the due process rights of the defendants that appear before me.

It's always been an objective of mine to be reminded that I have a duty to the law.

They I have a duty to fairness, uh, and I have a duty to the public and to the administration of justice.

I think the way you accomplish that is by being uh always being informed, being in prepared, and always having the temperament that uh inspires confidence in the process.

So those have been my objectives, have been what uh guides me as as a judge over the last 25 years.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Mugia.

Yes, how do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

I I think uh councilman is uh it always comes back to the same thing.

Um I think it's important for judges to be prepared by being informed, being up on the law and always understanding that the people who be appear before you are people who have lives and problems and and they are need to be treated with dignity and respect and they need to be a judges need to be reminded that their temperament uh always needs to be such that when they leave there, no matter what the result that they feel confident that they've been heard, that they've had a fair day in court, and that uh that continues to instill confidence in the process.

And so to answer your question, I think if you bear those things in mind, you're able to always sort of get to a place where you can have accomplished that and still have been able to uh make people feel good about the process.

Thank you so much.

That concludes the interview.

Thank you very much.

Good to see you again.

Good afternoon, Judge.

Good to see you.

You'll have uh two minutes for opening statement, and then we'll have one question with uh that you'll have two minutes to answer.

It's going to feel extremely fast.

Okay.

Uh my name is Cheryl Mendosa.

I'm one of the magistrate court uh judges here at the municipal court.

I've been with the municipal court for four years now, and um I uh have an undergraduate in um a bachelor's of science degree in aerospace engineering um from the University of Southern California.

Um after working for the United States Army as a government civilian and deploying with them to Afghanistan.

Um I came back and um to Texas and pursued a law degree at St.

Mary's University.

I worked in the oil and gas field and then um have just been doing this part time and spending some time with my family, just balancing that work-life work-life uh challenge, you know.

Um I'm really uh honored to be a part of the municipal court team.

Um again, I said I work at the magistrate um department.

I basically are typically do overnight shifts throughout the months or throughout the year, and including last night from eight to six and tonight from eight to six.

So I'll keep this short, that way y'all can continue with your work and I can get some sleep.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Mungia.

Yes, thank you.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

Balancing judicial efficiency.

Um when I'm work in my department that I'm working with uh in the magistrate court, you know, I just go with the basic judicial rules of finding probable cause for um, you know, all the charges that come forward.

Um I don't try and um overstep my authority or do any more counseling than I need to.

Um, just trying to continue the um the the process.

Um so I stick basically stick to a script of informing the defendants of their rights and of their charges.

I I do show compassion, you know, where I can, but um in order to be efficient, I find the best way is to keep with informing them of their charges and informing them of their rights and getting them on to county, which is where bond will be set, and the process continues from there.

Thank you so much.

That concludes the interview.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you.

Good to see you again.

Good afternoon, Judge.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for being here.

You'll have uh two minutes for your opening statement, and then we'll have one question for you that you'll have two minutes to answer.

It's going to feel very fast.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Dan Cassan, and I've had the privilege of serving the city of San Antonio for the past 25 years.

Five as a prosecutor in the last 20 as a judge.

During that time at the court, I've covered every docket, and I absolutely love what I do.

I love coming to work every day.

Some of the things that I'm most proud of during my time at the court are I was asked to act as acting presiding judge by former presiding judge John Boole.

I implemented the courts operating system.

I was first judge when we uh acquired that system a couple years ago.

I created a training manual for operating system, and I train all the new judges in the operating system.

During the pandemic, Judge Jamore and I created a process for handling cases remotely via COVID for COVID, and we both came to the building every day and handled cases in our office.

I was the uh only judge to serve at the courts haven't for Hope Campus when we had that several years ago.

I helped implement the original kiosk system.

I have a high case volume and high case closure rate.

I get at court every day at 5 a.m.

and I'm always there to help in anything that needs to be covered.

My primary current responsibilities are the SA Road Ready Docket.

This is a docket designed to help 17 to 24 year olds obtain their license.

In the past 22 months, we've helped approximately 1,200 young people obtain their license.

My favorite part of this doc is being able to tell one of them who gets their license, I'm proud of you because a lot of them on that docket have never been told that, or it's been a long time.

I also have a daily slot and arraignment, it's usually a three hour slot.

This is my favorite docket because it's high volume at fast pace.

For the last 19 months, I've been assigned by Judge Oblato to cover the six to eight a.m magistrate shift in an attempt to reduce money spent on part-time judges.

So I according to my estimates, we save the city about 40,000.

Um in conclusion, I love what I do.

I love getting up every morning.

I never dread it.

I'm a hard worker, I get at the court every day at 5 a.m.

I'm there nine hours a day.

I typically don't go to lunch.

If I'm not on the bench, I'm in my office.

I make it known to the staff.

I'm there if you need help or assistance.

And I understand this is a position of public trust and responsibility.

I take that very seriously.

I invite you all to visit the court anytime.

I thank you for the interview, and I look forward to the opportunity to continue to serve.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Mugia.

Thank you.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high-volume docket in a municipal court?

It's a really good question.

Most people's experience with the court system is at municipal court or justice of the peace court, over 70%.

It's their first time at court, they're nervous, they're scared, and quite frankly, a lot of times I think they're expecting a judge duty experience.

So we have to figure out how to be fair, fast, and efficient.

Let people have a chance to be heard and make sure individual cases get individual justice.

A lot of that comes through training and experience.

Since I train most of the judges, I honestly feel it takes about five years for a judge to be really to the point where they can learn class C, learn magistration, learn the operating system, you could leave them alone and they wouldn't have to ask any questions.

So when you do start a docket, that's why a lot of times we find the dockets we like and Judge O'Blato tries to match us up with the dockets we like because then you can kind of become a subject matter expertise in those areas.

Sometimes we're asked to cover other dockets that we don't cover that often, and that's when you can go to the other judges and kind of get a refresher course.

But for the most part, when you've been there a while, you kind of learn everything.

We have our continuing education seminars.

The main thing at this level is giving people a chance to be heard, and that doesn't mean you have to be soft or hard one way or the other.

They just need a chance to be heard because 99.9% of the people, if you give them that opportunity, whatever resolution you come to, they're gonna be happy that they had their chance for their voice to be heard.

Thank you so much.

That concludes the interview.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Judge.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you.

You'll have uh two minutes for opening statement, and then we'll have one question for you, and then you'll have two minutes to answer that.

It's gonna feel very fast.

Okay, all right.

My name is Judge Gonzalez Lisa Gonzalez.

I'm currently a judge at the municipal court.

As you guys can see from my stat sheet, I am like the pinch hitter for the court.

I do a lot of different dockets.

Um, do all the hard dockets that most people don't like to do.

Um, but I enjoy doing them.

I feel like um I'm making an impact in the community in different ways.

Um I am a resident of district one, grew up in district three, part-time resident of district three because I stay there and help my dad, help with my dad.

Um so um my husband is a SASD teacher, so it's a little bit about me.

Um about my dockets.

Like I said, I do difficult dockets, I do the animal docket, I do the DPS suspension hearing dockets, I do the quality of life docket, license and weight, which are the 18-wheeler trucks that um violate the laws, and those are big ticket, those are big ticket big money items.

Um, so we need to make sure that um the drivers are held accountable for that.

Um I also do some of the um traffic.

Um, do mags, uh, we do regular magistration schedules, uh rotating schedules.

Um, that's pretty much what I do with the court.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Mungia.

Thank you.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket uh in a municipal court?

Okay, um, well, we do um training with TMCC, Texas Municipal Education.

Um, we do that annually.

We're required to do 16 hours of that.

Um, in addition to that, um, I do stay current on all of the laws, especially the ones that affect the dockets that I work in.

Um I worked in city government since 2002, so I've been going to TMCC since 2002, 2003.

So I was already familiar with the laws before um becoming a judge at municipal court.

So um I'm used to TMCC, keep up with all of their training.

I do extra training with them, like when I have so when I have a little bit of free time, I'll have that on in the background while I'm working on my orders or doing my cues, issuing warrants, things like that.

Uh, but that's how I stay updated on everything.

Thank you so much.

That concludes the interview.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for being here, Judge.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Hello.

We'll start off with a quick two-minute introduction and then we'll have one question.

Uh you'll have two minutes to respond to the question, and it's going to feel very fast.

Okay.

Um, so my name is Margarita Pohl.

I have been, I've had the honor of serving municipal court here in San Antonio for 10 years now.

Um I am primarily assigned to the assault court.

I've been assigned to the assault court since uh 2019, right before COVID.

Um prior to that, I was in the warrant resolution court.

Of course, I do rotations in arraignment court and all of our other specialty courts.

Um we all cover for each other when needed.

So I've done shifts in every single court.

I do regular rotations in the magistrate's office, including the overnight shift and the evening shift.

Um prior to working for municipal court, I was a prosecutor for 14 years, about 12 of those years.

I was a first chair felony prosecutor.

I served the 81st to 18th Judicial District.

Um, I was a drug task force prosecutor, as well as um just the regular docket, which included we were a small office, so we did everything from intake, grand jury, investigations with the law enforcement, all the way through appeals.

Um so I have a lot of criminal law experience.

Um I love my job.

I love being a civil servant and serving the public.

I want to continue to do that.

Uh, in my free time, uh, I am the mother of two college students, so I have a lot more free time than I used to.

Um I am a I foster dogs.

I've been doing that for about nine years now.

I do that for Tracy's Paws Rescue.

Um, and I fostered over 20 dogs in that time.

Um I used to be very active in my daughter's high school marching band program.

So she graduated last year, so now I'm trying to fill that free time with other things, and I'm still kind of figuring out that um that role of of not being a full-time parent as much anymore.

Um so that's me in a nutshell.

Wonderful, thank you so much.

Councilmember Mogia.

How do you balance a judicial efficiency?

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

We are a uh we have a smooth operating process.

We're a well-oiled machine in court seven.

So when I took over court seven back in 2019, there were hundreds, I think it was over 500 cases pending jury trial.

So what I had to do first of all when I took over that docket is figure out how things were being done, um, what their process was, what was working, what wasn't working, and kind of refine that with the experience that I had working with um felony dockets and other courts.

Um I kind of set up the same process.

So we have pre-trial, we have an arraignment docket where they come in and we have very specific procedures for that, and then it moves to a Zoom pretrial conference, um, very specific guidelines for that, and then from there they go to a docket call or a non-jury trial if that's what they choose.

If they choose the jury, it's gonna be docket call jury trial.

We're moving them through quickly, but they have enough trial settings that um or I should say court appearances, both virtual and non-virtual, where we can resolve discovery matters, any sort of motions.

If if somebody needs motions heard, we get those heard on Monday afternoons.

We also do with a court because we have a court reporter.

Um, we also do our non-jury dockets on Monday afternoon.

So we have a very specific schedule.

We have jury trials once a month, we have non-jury trials every Monday afternoon.

We have our Zoom dockets every Monday uh before lunch.

Um, and courts not very lenient with continuances.

We've got to keep things moving.

They have to have a good reason to drag a case out.

So that's how I get that court being high volume, but also a very um well-balanced size docket because we are down to 50 cases pending jury right now.

And that's up because for the last year, it's been right around 25 cases.

So we've had a little surge, but that's because we've had more cases filed.

But yeah, had just having clerks that know what they're doing, and um, you know, they work with me, we're a team, so yeah.

Thank you so much.

That concludes the interview.

All right, thank you so much.

Y'all have a good afternoon.

Thank you.

Good to see you again.

Good to see you.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here, Ms.

Pearson Petis.

Absolutely.

Thank you for having me.

Of course.

We're gonna start off with a quick two-minute introduction of yourself, and then we'll have uh one question from a council member, and you'll have two minutes to respond.

It's going to feel very fast, and it's supposed to feel that way.

Okay.

Um, my name is Alana Pearsall.

I am an attorney in in San Antonio.

I've been practicing law for 27 years.

I started my practice in Boston by um defending victims of domestic violence uh while I was in law school.

I started as a volunteer and then ended up actually running the program and publishing a book on the subject.

I then moved to Texas despite the fact that everybody thought I was crazy.

I really wanted to move to Texas.

So I moved to Texas, passed the bar, um, got a job at a criminal defense firm in the Marillo.

I worked there for a year.

I very quickly realized this might just I liked my firm.

I really disliked Amarillo.

So I moved to San Antonio in 2000 and I have lived and practiced here since.

Um I manage my firm.

I'm definitely primarily trial attorney, so I've done multiple jury trials, multiple non-jury trials, every possible motion in between.

I've been a licensed arbitrator since uh 2006, give a take, and so I've arbitrated multiple cases, listened to both sides, and uh done um written decisions in those.

I became a high complex licensed mediator uh seventeen years ago, and so I've mediated multiple cases since and continue to do that.

I also have an appellate practice, so I've done appeals to the third court, fourth court, um, Supreme Court of Texas as well as Supreme Court of United States.

I'm also licensed there, so that's kind of a fun part of my practice, and I'm guessing that's two minutes.

Wonderful, thank you so much.

And uh you definitely have diverse experience.

Uh Councilmember Mungia.

Thank you.

How would you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

Doing the docket beforehand and kind of knowing what's coming, uh setting out expectations when the docket starts, explaining, you know, these are the rules and these are the procedures that we follow.

Um I think staff, courts have is incredibly helpful and and can definitely kind of lead you in the right direction.

They may know something that's gonna blow up even if you don't before you get there.

Um, and just you know, making sure everybody has a chance to be heard um fairly but moving it efficiently.

You know, because I've run um a very high volume practice for 26 years.

I think I'm actually really good at managing lots of work at the same time and being organized and getting it done.

Thank you so much.

That concludes the interview.

My pleasure.

Thank you so much for having me.

I appreciate the opportunity.

Thank you.

Wonderful to meet you.

Thank you, Judge, for being here.

We'll start off with a quick two-minute introduction of yourself, and then we'll have one question from a council member, and then you'll have two minutes to respond to the question.

It's gonna feel very fast, and that's okay.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Um I'm uh lifelong resident of uh San Antonio.

Uh went to high school here, went to uh college at the University of Notre Dame, graduated, and then went to law school uh at the University of Texas.

So it's kind of crazy to be an Irish and a longhorn, and so mixed feelings about both, but that's okay.

Um at the law school.

I was uh I worked for uh legal services, Bear County Legal Aid, which is now Texas Rural or Real Ground Illegal Aid.

Uh went to work with the uh district attorney's office, prosecutor for about 11 years, tried misdemeanors, through felonies.

Um then I was appointed municipal court judge in 1997, and I uh retired from the city.

I think in 2014, uh they took uh senior status, meaning that I'm a part-time magistrate, uh handling cases on on the weekends and an assignment by the presiding judge.

I also, in not thinking 2021.

I was appointed uh what a um Justice of the Peace in Precinct One to fill in an expired term when uh uh a judge resigned.

And right now uh I am working as a part-time uh municipal court judge, and I'm also filling in uh or have been filling in since May uh in JP 4, just as uh piece number four.

Uh Judge Garcia was sick and passed away in December of this past year, and so her dockets needed to be covered while she was uh sick, and so I think since May I've been covering her dockets two to three times a week in Justice of the Court, just as a peace precinct four, along with Judge uh Celeste Brown.

And so that's basically it.

Uh I'm uh I've been a pretty much lifelong public servant, and I I enjoy what I do.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Mungia.

Thank you.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

I believe you have to have a plan.

I believe you need to find a way to move cases along judiciously, efficiently, and giving people the opportunity to to uh to respond.

The biggest criticism that the, first of all, the most people will not will not be part of the judicial system or in the judicial system other than at municipal court because everybody gets a ticket.

Judges get tickets, uh police officers get tickets, federal district judges get tickets from personal experience.

And so uh it's and um but the everyday citizen uh they have to be treated with dignity and respect, just like I want to be treated with respect as well.

Um, and many times the everyday citizen, whether it's for a ticket or if I'm seeing them for an eviction or a dead claim in JP court, is giving them the opportunity to tell the court what they want to tell the court.

It may not change the court's ruling, but you've given them the opportunity to to tell you what they feel or how they're feeling or what their position is.

Because the biggest criticism of the judges is in my ex from my experience, they'll walk out, the citizen will walk out, and he'll say, or he or she will say, you they the judge did not give me the opportunity to say what I wanted to say.

Now they can't go for 20 minutes, but if they can put it in a concise form, and you you uh you digest it, and then you can still tell them, well, I understand, but this is how I ruled, and that's that's my decision, and that's how I think it should be.

Thank you so much.

That concludes the interview.

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you, good to see you all.

Bye bye.

That's a good thing.

Hi.

Thank you, Judge, for being here.

Of course.

We're gonna start off with a quick two-minute introduction of yourself, and then we'll have a question from a council member, and you'll have two minutes to respond to that.

It's gonna feel very fast, but that's okay.

Councilman Mickey Rodriguez, I appreciate that.

My name is Frankie, Frankie Sandoval, uh, born and raised in San Antonio, and I need to say, as uh was mentioned in my application, this has been the highlight of my career being a uh judge for the city of San Antonio, the city I grew up with.

We're changing, but we're still so much the same.

And as cosmopolitan as we like to think we are, I still like the provincial nature of our town, and I really do love being a judge for the city of San Antonio.

I I practice across the street all the all the way up to felonies, first degree murder, divorces, but in municipal court is where most individuals have their first experience and sometimes only experience with the uh judicial system.

And what I see is folks just want to be heard.

They may not appreciate the decision at the end, but the fact that they felt that they were heard and respected and treated decently, I think just means the world to them.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Mughea.

Great, good afternoon.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

Councilman Munge, with respect to that, it is challenging.

I like to think that technology is helping, but sometimes, as is the case in all our daily lives when we get the updates or the uh or the double uh password modifications, um, it's sometimes as a hindrance.

I think what we have to do is still take every case on a case-by-case basis because it's real easy just to see the number and and and not appreciate that there's an individual with a wife and a or or husband and a family and children behind them.

So any decision we make doesn't just affect them.

You could have long reaching effects.

So I do my best.

Um, one of the um qualities I think I'd like to try to reinstill in myself on a daily basis, is empathy.

Not to be taken advantage of.

I don't uh I don't uh allow anyone to take my pleasantness as a way for them to take advantage of me, but to at least try to see that the real person behind that, because oftentimes we have someone who just had a bad day or a bad night, and we we appreciate that.

Um we can still move them through efficiently, even in a large volume uh situation or scenario.

Thank you so much.

That concludes the interview.

I do appreciate I do appreciate all of y'all's time.

Take care and have a good rest of the day.

Thank you so much.

Good to see you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Judge for being here.

Thank you.

Uh, we'll start off.

Thank you for inviting me.

Of course, good afternoon, everyone.

I'm sorry.

Sorry, but we'll start off with a quick two-minute interview, two-minute opening statement, and then we'll have a question from a council member, and you have two minutes to respond.

It's gonna go by very quick, but that's okay.

Perfect.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Michael Ramos.

I'm a lifelong member.

I like actually was born and raised in San Antonio my whole life, except for three years that I was lived in Houston going to law school.

I graduated from Jefferson High School, graduated from UTSA in 1981.

Graduated from law school in uh uh Texas Southern University, Thurgood Marshall School of Law in 85.

I was an assistant district attorney for 18 years, I'm 13 years, and I achieved this uh position of first year family prosecutor.

I had four people that uh four prosecutors that worked under me, as well as uh two investigators, two intern, uh one intern and an advocate.

And then I wasn't I went to private practice, I was in private practice for 20 years.

I actually what happened, what happened?

Was there the last 10 years of that?

I was actually a part-time criminal law magistrate, and in addition to that, I was uh actually had a federal and state practice, and I also had a uh I was actually on the grievance committee for six years.

I was a panel chair and committee chair for six years, and let's see, and then also I was also appointed several times by the district and kind of court judges to be a uh district attorney pro Tim when the district attorney actually recused themselves of some matters.

This last eight years actually I was working with the municipal court, I was in a magistrate off uh judge, as well as taking care of a uh arraignment dockets, in addition to that, uh actually helped me train the new judges as well as being on call in the event that they needed uh help.

Um also the the I also actually take care of the kiosk in addition to my job as uh as a as a magister or judge during the day.

I actually worked with I worked uh excuse me.

I uh take care of what they call the kiosk.

I don't know if you're aware that we have a kiosk at a I go uh the library.

I've been trying to see by getting them all there's only on the north side, but I've been talking to a person that uh in our office to see about we can go get them at different locations because I don't see how it's fair.

How it's only on the north side and and only and we can see, but again, when they're south side, east side, and west side.

Um, and also it was appointed by uh Sid Harl to go ahead and be a visiting judge in uh Wincrest when one of its uh council members was charged with a classy misdemeanor theft and as well as and uh and also in uh was appointed as a visiting judge in in Jurenton as well.

Thank you so much.

Uh council member McGill.

Good afternoon, Judge.

How do you balance a judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

If you're meaning like basically like are you talking about a uh a Raymond docket?

Is that what you're talking about?

Yes.

Okay, an arraignment docket.

Well, at that point, I'd like to see it by going and finding out what's on the docket first and see what they're requesting.

Look at the look in the uh the notes of what the clerks that put in what they're requesting.

If they're they haven't if they have a CDL, there's basically very little we can do.

At that point, we tell them you either have to sit for trial or take the hit on it because if that those type of offenses you can't get a deferred adjudication.

And if they want to see about working something out, if they have more than one case, I'd like to see about sending them to the prosecutor because if they can go ahead and give them a because they could they're the ones that actually can go ahead and dismiss the case support, plea on the other one.

The best we can do is reduce the fee, but if they can go ahead and dismiss a case to come back and get basically come back to me, I tend to dismiss the case once they go ahead and plead on the other case once the case is played in full, and then I can go ahead and help them with the the fine is too high.

Try to work with them on the fine because we make sure that you know everything is fair with them.

We try to work with them with that.

Thank you so much.

That concludes the interview.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Good to see you.

Thank you for being here, Judge.

Hello, good afternoon.

Uh we'll start off with a quick two-minute introduction of yourself and then uh one question from a council member, and you'll have two minutes to respond to that.

It's gonna go by very quickly, and that's okay.

Thank you.

Uh good afternoon.

I am Peter Samora.

I was born and raised in San Antonio.

I grew up near Lee High School but went to Central Catholic like our esteemed uh city uh city attorney there.

Received my undergraduate degree from UT Austin uh in government in 1993, my law degree from UT Austin in 1997, spent the next three years in Austin practicing civil litigation with one of the top litigation firms.

My wife and I moved back to San Antonio in 2001 and have been residents of district eight ever since she grew up here as well.

I spent 11 years practicing litigation with some of the best civil litigation firms in the state until my appointment as a full-time judge in 2008.

Since that time I've been assigned to handle every docket at the court with the exception of the juvenile docket.

I currently handle high volume traffic arraignment, class C code compliance arraignment and trials, parking and administrative appeals, junk vehicle hearings.

I review all the mail that comes into the court, including uh mail from inmates, and I am on the evening and overnight magistration rotation.

I sincerely believe that if you ask the people at the court about me, court coordinator, the prosecutors, the defense attorneys, the court clerks, they would tell you that I rarely take time off.

I'm usually always at the courthouse.

I treat people with respect.

I am firm but fair, but my dockets will always start on time, and my dockets will always always be run efficiently.

I truly believe that the best community engagement I can give your constituents and the people that I serve is the ability to come to court, be heard, be treated fairly, have their cases resolved and get them back to their families, their jobs, or their school.

If another judge is out or late or backed up with the full docket, usually my door is knocked on, Judge Kasan's door is knocked on, we go out and provide the judicial support necessary to help uh the judges clear the dockets.

I truly love the position I'm serving in.

I believe I'm good at it.

I would be certainly honored to continue serving in the capacity that I am.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember McGill.

Good afternoon, Judge.

Thank you.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

That's a great question.

Uh, and there's a couple things you need to rely on.

You need to rely on when they check into the courthouse, they get screened by the clerks up front.

They put notes in the system which tells us basically what the defendant is looking for.

Looking for probation, looking for defensive driving.

They want to contest the case.

They need a reset because they don't have a license.

So before they walk in, I have an idea of what it is that the defendant wants.

Then you have to rely on your clerk, and I have an interpreter next to me that can help me screen people and help them decide how they want to handle their case.

Um it's it can be difficult.

Monday mornings, we see 140 people in 180 minutes, right?

And I'm typically that judge that's there.

So what you have to do is listen, you have to have experience because you have to learn how to use the system, the computer operating system, and see what the case, what kind of status it's in.

So I think experience comes into it, and I think using the support staff that you have are very important in running an efficient court, and starting on time, you know.

If it's an eight o'clock docket, we're starting at eight o'clock, we're not starting at 8.05.

Thank you so much.

That can close the interview.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Good to see you.

You too.

Thank you, Judge, for being here.

We'll start off with a quick two-minute introduction of yourself, and then we'll have one question from a council member, and you'll have two minutes to respond.

It's gonna go by very quickly, and that's okay.

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear what he said.

All right, uh, so I've been with the court since 2008.

When I started, I was running an evening trial docket, and we did that for a long, long time.

And it allowed people who couldn't take off from the from their jobs to come in and um if they wanted to have a trial on their case, and they could.

So we did that for a long time.

Then I started the court's kiosk operation.

This is where you could go to an HEB, and if you just wanted driving safety, we had a kiosk there.

You could um cut you would call the judge and I would look at your record, and then you could pay at the kiosk at the HEB.

It was a great operation.

It ran for a long time, and it was very popular, but we weren't following the banking rules, and they shut us down.

So apparently there's certain rules as to how you what you can do when you're taking money, you know, in another in the operation that we're running.

So unfortunately, we did that no longer.

And then when the county fire fired some of their magistrates, I went over to help with magistration.

It was an eye-opening experience, and so I've been doing magistration since then, so it's been really great experience.

And uh when I came on, it was because even though I was happy being a public interest lawyer, I was a single parent and I couldn't afford to send my kids to college.

So Judge Bull gave me a part-time job, and I thought, well, this is it, this is what I have to do.

I didn't think there'd be any really interesting, important issues.

And then I heard about surcharges, and surcharges were the extra fees that they added on if you had a citation for no license or no insurance.

And so the first time a man came up to me and had a citation for no uh no in no license.

I said, Why don't you have a license?

I can't afford the surcharges.

And so people were going heavily into debt over surcharges because they if you didn't pay your surcharges, they wouldn't allow you to get a license, then they were trapped in this cycle.

So that was when I started doing research, and I found out that they had filed a couple of lawsuits across the nation on these surcharge issues.

I got together with a lawyer in Washington, DC, and we put together the surcharge lawsuit that finally pushed the legislature to get rid of surcharges.

So I felt like I am doing something really great in this job.

So, and I feel the same way about magistration because I still have people come up to me and they don't understand what's going on.

And I'll have people come in, I'll say, Why don't you have a license?

And they'll say, Because I still owe surcharges.

And I'll say, surcharges have been over for a long time.

All those people that owe charges don't own nothing.

And so they don't really understand that.

They don't understand omnibase because they don't understand that even though DPS won't give them a license, that they can go to the court and they can talk to the judge and tell them about you know what their finances are, get their, you know, either get time served or you know, do community service.

They don't understand the issues, they just figure they can't get a license until they can pay all of the fees.

And it really makes me sad when I see that.

So you know, try and point them in the direct in the right direction.

I think that's very important because most people don't understand.

It's very complicated, even for the lawyers.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh Councilmember Mungeo.

Good afternoon, Judge.

Thank you.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

I'm sorry, I have an ear infection.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

So it is tough because you want to spend enough time talking to people, and yet you know that there are others waiting.

And so you kind of try and point them in the right direction, and you tell them always that you know you can always come back and talk to anybody at the court.

You don't have to wait until you have a court appointment.

The court is always open, and when you come in, you can talk to a prosecutor, you can ask to speak to a judge, you know, you don't have to wait.

And so, it um, I I understand where they're coming from.

They feel like you know, sometimes you know there's a squall, you only go when you have an appointment, but a lot of times I will tell people when I'm you know entering an order.

If you don't have money to pay by the deadline that I give you, you just come out in and you either explain your situation or you ask for more time.

So we're kind of keeping it open so that you know they know that we're not just there to collect money, we are there to help them work through the system, and if they need help because they can't pay for the fine and fees, then there are other options.

So, you know, I explain that to people a lot, because they don't really understand that they feel like you know, if I don't pay, then what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna drive without a license for years.

So, thank you so much.

That concludes the interview.

Thank you.

Good to see you.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here, Judge.

Thank you all.

Good afternoon.

Hello, we'll start off with a quick two-minute introduction of yourself, and then we'll have one question from a council member, and you'll have two minutes to respond.

It's gonna go by very quickly, and that's okay.

I understand y'all are on a time pressure.

Well, my name's Laurie Crockett, I'm presently a part-time municipal court judge and magistrate.

I was appointed about this time last year on a one-year term, I guess it was a midterm thing, and I have right before I applied for the last time, I would retired from the district attorney's office.

I was with the DA's office for about six years.

I was a county magistrate prior to that.

I don't know if some of y'all remember the county magistrate was eliminated by the county commissioners.

We were unemployed, the district attorney picked me up, and I was working at Mags for the district attorney.

So I'm at Mags, has been my career for about 22 years now.

I was previously a municipal court judge prior to going with county magistrate.

I was full-time and part-time.

I believe my first appointment was in 2003 or 2004 as a part-timer.

Previous to that, I was with the Texas Workforce Commission for a good many years.

I've been an attorney for uh going on my 36th year, and um primarily I've worked at Mags.

I when I can remember my first day at Mags, I said this is great.

I loved it, that's where I wanted to be.

And I've been fortunate enough to be able to stay with Max.

And always loved working for the city.

Um, just uh maybe it's not appropriate to say, but I like it better than working for the county.

Appropriate to say, okay, good, good, good.

I think uh the city treats their employees very well, so I can keep rambling, but if you'll have questions, thank you so much, Councilmember Munghea.

Yes, good afternoon, Judge.

Thank you.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

It's a challenge at Mags.

We get it just comes in, it just comes in in a flow sometimes, and you gotta gotta get them out.

We gotta get them to the jail.

We've got to get them out the door.

Um you just have to be diligent.

You know, we have to do the it's certainly the bare basics of probable cause.

Do we have enough to charge this person and hold this person?

Um, and then we can move on.

But when you're dealing with the city tickets as well, because a lot of these people have county problems and city problems.

City problems can slow things down, and so you kind of have to judge how much time you can spend with somebody on their city tickets.

Do we reset this?

Do we get a plea?

Are there other things we can work out?

So in slower times, it's a little easier to do that.

You can talk to them, what's your situation and manage it.

Sometimes when it's busy in the middle of the night, and we just got to get get the people moving.

It's a little less easy to talk to them about their problems.

So it's about it is a balance.

Some folks you just have to know that I need to talk to this person a little more than that person and make a judgment call.

Thank you so much.

That concludes the interview.

Well, thank you.

I appreciate y'all the opportunity to talk to you.

Absolutely, thank you so much, and good to see you again.

Thank you, Judge, for being here.

We'll start off with quick two-minute introduction of yourself, and then we'll have one question from a council member, and then uh you'll have two minutes to respond.

It's gonna go by very quickly, and that's okay.

No problem.

All right, good afternoon.

My name is James Banneker.

Thank you so much for taking the opportunity to speak with me today.

Uh I have worked the past two years as a part-time judge with the San Antonio Municipal Court and the past 14 years as a staff attorney for the Barry County Civil District Courts, uh, where I assist the 14 civil district judges and about eight to ten interns in assisting the public and serving at the needs.

I have enjoyed the past two years.

I worked at the municipal courts, uh, just understanding a better aspect of criminal law and the court's aspect and the role in serving that need, as well as you know, the things I'm able to do to help the city of San Antonio.

Um, I look forward if given the opportunity uh to get the appointment for another two years, just continuing to continue to assist the city of San Antonio and helping the needs of the city and the county.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Mughea.

Judge, thank you.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high-volume docket in the municipal court?

You have to take your time, but also work judiciously and effectively in reviewing the cases, but make sure you're not overlooking anything, making sure you're looking at every single aspect, but also understand the people's times and needs to associate what they need to to make sure that you know you give them the time that they're asking for us for any questions that you're able to answer, but also effectively working through the docket to make sure that things don't just lag for no reason.

Thank you so much, as promised.

That was uh a quick conclusion to the interview.

Oh, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Yeah, good afternoon.

Hello, thank you for being here, Judge.

Thank you.

Of course, we'll start off with a quick two-minute introduction of yourself, and then we'll have one question.

You'll have two minutes to respond to the question.

It's going to go by very quickly, and that's okay.

All right, I'm sorry, Mark White and I were mock trial teammates.

Um, so that's why we are laughing.

One point against you.

Yes, I shouldn't have said anything, but there it is.

Um, my name is Veronica Legarreta or Veronica Legaretta.

I am one of your part-time judges for the past four years.

I am a criminal defense attorney, a former prosecutor under Susan Reed.

Um I do a lot of criminal law, probably about 70% and 30 percent family law.

I am currently the chair of the Hispanic Women Network of Texas, and I will be the incoming chair of the Hispanic lawyer section for the State Bar of Texas, which is I'm very proud of.

Um any questions?

Thank you, Councilmember Mughea.

Judge, thank you very much.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

Uh well, my particular position that y'all have assigned to me is mainly magistration.

Um so I actually do a lot, read through a lot of the probable cost statements, the police reports, the warrants, uh I make sure that they're all read.

I know what time transport has to happen.

So I make sure everything has been read thoroughly, one hour before transport, so we can have the dockets moving.

So everyone's ready to go.

Well, we have plenty of time.

If you would like to do a closing statement, and then thank you very much for having me.

I've enjoyed working with the city.

And Mark was such a fun friend.

I'm just kidding.

Sounds good.

Well, that concludes the interview.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here, Mr.

Garcia.

Thank you for having me.

Of course, we'll start off with a quick two-minute two-minute introduction of yourself, and then we'll have one question.

You'll have two minutes to respond to the question.

It's gonna go by very quickly, and that's okay.

Okay, I would just I guess what I should say is that I'm a longtime attorney.

I'm now completing my fourth year with the District Attorney's Office.

Before that, I worked as a criminal defense lawyer, and before that I was worked as an insurance defense lawyer, and before that I was a plaintiff lawyer.

So I feel honored that I've seen all four quarters of the bar.

And I will tell you that uh as far as service is concerned to the community, it's in the prosecutor's office, and I'm very happy to be there.

Um, I am uh uh appreciative of the fact that you're considering me for a bench post.

I I would say that um my philosophy in uh protecting the citizens is that whenever a citizen gets the benefit of the doubt, he should get it.

If if the uh I think I've messed that up, but it's tie goes to the runner, I think tie goes to the citizen, and I think the the judiciary is blessed with the ability to provide mercy in its position.

So uh I would see that as my philosophical goal.

Wonderful, thank you.

Uh Councilmember McGill.

Thank you, Mr.

Garcia.

How would you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

Well, unfortunately, uh when you have a large docket, what that means is uh dedication from the person who has the docket.

So it means oftentimes uh doing more than is required.

So um, like in my position at the DA's office, uh the the time is eight to five, but that is not rarely, I mean that is rarely followed.

Um, because of dockets, it just means you're gonna have to come in early and get the work done.

And so I would see the same thing on the judicial side.

If there's work to be done, it has to be done, and that's all there is to it.

Thank you so much.

That concludes the interview.

Sure, sure.

No, just part-time.

Thank you, that concludes the interview.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Thank you for being here.

I will start off with a quick two-minute introduction of yourself, and then we'll have one question and you'll have two minutes to respond.

It's gonna go by very quickly, and that's okay.

Wonderful.

Well, my name is Lenor Reyes, for those that haven't met me.

I am a native from Bronzeville, Texas, down in down South Texas.

I grew up in Matamoros de Maulipas.

I came up here right after um high school.

I went to university here for UTFA, go Roadrunners.

After that, I went to St.

Mary's Law.

When I graduated, I started my practice with one of my best friends and business partners now, Philip Lambert, throughout my course and career.

I've met a lot of the fellow attorneys that I'm working with right now, one of those being Veronica Legaretta.

She told me about this position.

I applied.

I have been a magistrate judge since August of twenty twenty-four, about two years, more or less.

I specialize in criminal defense law, and I've been doing it ever since, and love trying cases.

Thank you so much.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

Honestly, just going up there and reading each case efficiently, and I always tell the clerks, I'm like, just keep on coming.

I will sit on that bench as long as it takes so we can get this done and ready.

I try to do this as speediest as possible because I know that we do not want to keep the individuals in the jail more than we have to.

I know that there's train I mean, they call them trains that are leaving every hour and a half up to two hours.

So we can get them in and out as well as I mean, I don't know if y'all notice, but I am a f uh fluent Spanish speaker, so I don't use the the phone line, I can just translate for them.

I it's my first language, so I try to keep that as efficient as possible.

Thank you so much.

That concludes the interview.

Oh, thank you, guys.

Appreciate it.

I promised it was gonna be fast.

Yeah.

Thank you.

He did apply for a full-time and a part-time position.

He was finishing up a docket at Balcony's Heights, and we were moving a lot faster than we thought we were, so he's not expected to be here until about three forty.

So I don't know.

Okay, do you want me to step out?

They're all gone.

They went back to court to as we start running court.

Councilman, did you want to read this for that?

Thank you, Judge for being here.

Thank you for making your way all the way from uh back on his heights.

It's a day's travel, but uh, but I'm glad to be here and uh thank you for the uh opportunity.

Of course, it's gonna go by very quickly.

We're gonna start off with a quick two-minute introduction of yourself, and then we'll have one question, uh and you'll have two minutes to respond, and then that'll be.

Okay, sounds good.

Um, is Anthony Ariaga.

I am a uh prosecutor slash judge.

Uh I've been a prosecutor for over 17 years, 14 of which with the city of San Antonio.

Uh I am now serving as a part-time magistrate, and I've been doing that for the past four years.

Got plenty of judge experience.

I'm also an associate judge in Wincrest.

Um I am part of this process, and the reason why I'm doing what I'm doing is because at the end of the day, at some point in time, I want to realize my dream of becoming a full-time municipal court judge.

That's where I'd want to do, and if I could retire doing that, that's what I would do until I retire.

So it'd be fabulous.

Um, my greatest strengths are gonna be experience.

I've got a lot of experience working with various municipal courts, San Antonio Municipal Court most of all.

I believe in the golden rule.

I believe in treating everyone the way that I would want to be treated if I were in their shoes, and I think that goes for defendants, it goes for court clerks, it goes for attorneys, it goes for everyone, uh everyone that works at the at the uh municipal court and otherwise.

And my greatest strength is that I'm not afraid of hard work.

I don't mind having a 300 person assault docket.

Uh, I don't mind ha hearing a sovereign citizen trial.

Uh, I don't mind hearing a high profile dog bite case, uh dangerous building code violation hearing.

Uh you name it.

Anything that people do not want to do, I'm willing to do it and I'm willing to do it well.

Thank you so much.

Council Member McGill.

Thank you, Judge.

How do you balance judicial efficiency with the need for thoroughness when managing a high volume docket in a municipal court?

You know, you you want to be efficient, you want to put you want to put the process in place that maximizes your efficiency.

And I believe that, you know, not only is thorough validly important when handling a docket, but also again, treating people the way that you would want to be treated if you were standing before that judge or that prosecutor.

And it just takes implementing technology or implementing uh staff to manage the docket more efficiently, you know, uh changing the process of the docket, uh, and of course taking time to make sure that what you're doing is correct.

I've worked a lot of municipal courts as it stands right now.

I work in six other jurisdictions, and each of those dockets is different, and they're run differently.

And they are run to maximize efficiency, and you've got to utilize the tools that you've got.

You've got to utilize the staff, you have to utilize technology, and then of course, you know, you want to make sure to have good people in those positions that you know maximize correctness, fairness, and justice.

Thank you so much.

That concludes the interview.

Thank you.

Thank you, everyone.

Appreciate you.

Thank you.

The time is now 3 28 p.m., Wednesday, May 27, 2026.

The municipal court advisory committee will recess into executive session to interview candidates to deliberate the appointment of full-time municipal court judges pursuant to tax government code section 551.074 and discuss related legal issues pursuant to Texas Government Code Section 551.071.

The time is now 3.59 p.m.

Wednesday, May 27th, 2026, and Municipal Court Advisory Committee will reconvene an open session.

No official action was taken during the executive session.

I'll start off by saying that our municipal court system is one of the first times an individual interacts directly with local government.

So I want to thank each and every one of you for applying uh to be a municipal court judge.

We were impressed by every single applicant and each of your backgrounds and demonstrated commitment in serving our community.

You represent so many diverse backgrounds in not just law but in mathematics, aerospace engineering, and more.

Many of you are homegrown talent living all around San Antonio and sharing real stakes in our city.

And you take that task to heart by volunteering, stepping up to fill needs where you see them, whether it's helping to get stray dogs off the street by fostering dogs in your own home or serving on local and state organizations.

Some of you have created and led innovative programs and initiatives within our court system.

You've advocated on behalf of our vulnerable residents in our community, and you've provided justice for those who have needed it the most.

We're so grateful that each and every one of you have stepped up stepped up to serve our community in this way, and we look forward to working with all of the appointed judges once appointed.

That being said, I'll entertain a motions for recommendation of appointment first of the full-time judges at the first available city council A session meeting.

Remember, we are seeking to fill 10 full-time positions and 12 part-time positions.

Chair, I move to recommend the following 11 full-time judges, and 10 part-time judges for appointment by the full city council for the remainder of an unexpired term ending April 30th, 2028 at the next available A session for full-time.

Kenneth Bell, Melanie Castillo, Carisa Chaviera, Yvonne Gomez, Daniel Guerrero, Lisa Gonzalez, James Gonzane, Margarita Paul, Michael Ramos, Peter Zamora, and Anthony Ariaga.

For part time, Cheryl Mendoza, Alana Pierce Alperez, Frank Sandoval, James Abianca, Rolanda Rolando Arduegas, Lori Crockett, Lauren Lefton, Veronica Legareta, Alfredo Tavera, and Daniel Garcia.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

All in favor?

We got it.

Aye.

Aye.

Wonderful congratulations to all those who are appointed.

The time is now 4 02 p.m.

on May 27, 2026, and this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.