Law Library Again a Topic of Discussion at County Court

The budget for the Fayette County Law Library was again a topic of conversation at the Commissioners Court meeting last Thursday, Aug. 14.

The law library fund makes up less than a quarter of one percent of the County’s $36 million budget. But the Commissioners Court has scrutinized the program for spending thousands of dollars on books, many of which never get opened.

State law requires counties to maintain a law library fund. The money is supposed to be used to provide books and other materials for legal research by litigants in the local courts, especially those who represent themselves. The County Attorney’s Office maintains the Fayette County Law Library, which is located on the first floor of the courthouse.

At a meeting two weeks ago, County Auditor Cindy Havelka said the County Attorney’s Office requested a $75,000 increase to the law library fund. Last Thursday, Havelka clarified her remarks, saying that the County Attorney’s Office submitted a worksheet increasing the law library budget from $25,000 to $75,000.

The Commissioners Court ultimately decided to set the spending limit for the law library fund at $20,000. In last Tuesday’s paper the Record reported on our visit to the Fayette County Law Library, where we found piles of boxes filled with legal books unopened and in plastic wrapping.

“To put it straightforward, it’s a mess down there,” said Pct. 1 Commissioner Jason McBroom at last Thursday’s meeting. “I don’t mind helping to straighten out books. But we need to figure out what’s going in there.”

At the prior meeting, Commissioners asked Assistant County Attorney Blake Watson if the County could use an online legal research service instead of purchasing so many expensive, hard-bound legal books. At that meeting, Watson said he doubted the County could find savings with an online service, but he said he would research the options.

“The good news is, it looks like it’s going to be less expensive than I thought it would,” Watson said last Thursday.

Watson said he found providers that offer an online service specifically for small public law libraries like the one in the Fayette County Courthouse.

Prior to the meeting last week, County Attorney James Herbrich told the Record that some of the money in the law library fund has been used to purchase legal books for his office. He was unsure why those purchases were made using law library funds instead of county attorney funds, but he said the County Auditor’s office made those decisions.

At last Thursday’s meeting, Havelka said she would check into why the County Attorney’s books have been coming out of the law library fund.