Pratt: Lubbock County’s Slayton More an Innovator Than Bureaucrat

By Robert Pratt
Host of "Pratt on Texas", weekdays 5p-7p on KFYO

Kudos again to one of the few effectively innovative, results-oriented, and responsible people working in county government: Lubbock County’s David Slayton who serves as director of court administration

As in many courthouses, especially the one in Lubbock, there has been an almost unimpeded rush to grow spending and the size of the bureaucracy over the past decade. David Slayton has approached the challenges of increased case loads on courts with the eyes of an innovator more than as a bureaucrat.

Of late there has been a big move to create new bureaucracies of so-called “public defender offices” in counties where such is unnecessary. David Slayton has an and idea for a better system where private-sector attorneys continue to do the job.

Slayton told KJTV in Lubbock: "In a private defender concept, it takes the advantages of a public defender where there is management, the oversight and the efficiencies of a public defender, but instead it uses the resources of the private bar. The attorneys will not be employees of Lubbock County, therefore not growing the county government. We will be able to use all the resources of the good criminal defense lawyers that we have in Lubbock County."

Slayton says the program will improve services and save money. Under the current system, used by most counties, judges appoint attorneys to represent defendants who cannot pay for their own. Slayton says his new system would eliminate some county duties and hand them to the Lubbock County Bar Association, reported KJTV.

David Slayton should be thanked for his continued press to make courts more efficient.

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Robert Pratt is the host of the top-rated Pratt on Texas.  Visit his website at www.prattontexas.com