Back to Contents

October / November 2010
Volume 22, Number 6

What ’s more important : Abused women and children or soldiers who need assistance after fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan?

That was the question that came up in Walker County one night in October, when 20 college students and residents sat in the historic and stately Austin Hall, earnestly discussing the county budget and discretionary funding requests with elected officials.

Everyone, it seemed, had an opinion. Given the $100,000 the county had to spend on budget requests — including $500 for sheriff’s training, $7,000 for an after-school program for at-risk youth, $3,000 for new computers and software in the courthouse, $200 for a firehouse dog, $10,000 to the local Halfway House, $2,000 for the purchase of new park land, $16,000 for election equipment, $3,500 for disease prevention and $500 for a storm shelter — the only request that passed unanimously and fully was… well, consensus doesn’t come easy.

That’s because the group also had to try and fund SAAFE House, which requested $50,000 for an employee to improve services to women and children fleeing from abusive homes, and Veteran’s Services, which requested $80,000 to help provide need-based financial and medical assistance to heroes returning home from Iraq.

But while consensus didn’t come, empathy for commissioners and elected officials was knocking on the door.

“I see how hard this would be for a commissioner,” said one student, in the midst of a debate between whether the sheriff’s deputies really need more training at all and whether Veteran’s Services was relying too much on county funding. Don’t they get federal funding?

“I would never get elected because I would never approve anything,” responded a resident, who had voted to axe the after-school program, the courthouse improvements, the election equipment, the sheriff’s training and other items.

Walker County Treasurer Sharon Duke nodded.

“All of these things are good things,” she said, seizing the opportunity to have a teachable moment by discussing how partial funding may not actually help certain programs and how other programs can probably find matching funds from another source. “Did you know discretionary items are only 2 percent of the budget?”

The Student Body

Fortunately, the decisions made on that October night weren’t final. The discussion had only been an exercise — part of the lesson plan for an innovative class known in Walker County as “County U.”

Led by Sam Houston State University (SHSU) Political Science Professor Mike Yawn, the County U class is a partnership between the county and a small SHSU student group called the Political Science Junior Fellows, which wanted a chance to learn about local government since most college courses focus on state and federal politics. The Junior Fellows pay for half the expenses, while county officials agree to speak with students and create the presentations.

“We just thought that there were so many people out there who didn’t know what county government was all about, but county government has such an impact on people’s lives and influences it in so many ways that we thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to get to meet their county officials, get to learn what their county officials do, and get to learn about what county government does,” said Yawn, who advises the Junior Fellows.

To keep the class interactive, Yawn tries to limit its size to just 20 students. The only admission criterion is that the person be interested in county government, though some are interested in law and the criminal justice system. “We have people from non-profits, we have pe

COPY CATS

Resources available for counties wanting to create their own “County University”

read more...

the City of Huntsville, and some from private businesses who just want to know where their tax dollars are going. … They have a vague idea that county government is important, but don’t know why,” Yawn said, adding that a student does not have to be enrolled at SHSU or any other university to participate.

“I thought it would be really interesting to learn about the county government and how it operates. … Most people only focus on the federal government,” said SHSU student and political science major Johanna Thompkins. “I think it was a great idea to inform the community and students that are interested in what happens in their community about the county government. It allows people of different age groups and backgrounds to interact, while learning about something that affects each person’s life.”

Several of the students are from the Political Science Junior Fellows, the majority of whom take the class one year, then help lead the class the next year. The Fellows collect materials, market the class, schedule presentations, book venues and purchase food.

“The course takes some work,” said SHSU student and Junior Fellows President Daniel North, adding that before taking the course last year, he didn’t realize the county government had so many responsibilities and was so strongly structured, and that the time spent organizing the course this year was worthwhile. “The obvious challenges are financing and finding volunteers to do the preparation work. … (but) it is important for people in communities to come together more frequently than they do, and this is a great way to facilitate that civic engagement.”

Having knowledgeable students drive dialogues and discussions creates a more dynamic and synergic class overall, and also gives the program a foundation that is more likely to carry it into the future.

“It’s a great opportunity for them. They are already very involved in the community, and they get to build close relationships with the county officials. They also learn a whole lot,” Yawn said, adding that the opportunity for the students to engage directly with elected officials helps build future pathways into law, politics and non-profits. “They get to take a leadership role on campus and transition that leadership role into the community at large.

Professor Mike Yawn draws the structure of the Texas criminal justice system, with justices of the peace courts at the base and the Court of Criminal Appeals toward the top.

“That’s one of the things that makes it unique, and that’s one of the things that give it added value … building these types of partnerships between the county and the university,” he added.

The Curriculum

This was the second year for the class, which meets one night a week for five weeks, with visits from different elected officials each week. The first week included discussions with County Judge Danny Pierce, County Clerk James Patton and Commissioner Tim Paulsel. The three discussed commissioners court, the duties of the county judge, and the importance of maintaining records.

Each week, Yawn collects feedback from students in order to improve the class the next year. This time around, that’s meant more interactive exercises.

COUNTY GOVERNMENT WORKS!

Features available online via NACo’s initiative to raise awareness about county government

read more...

The second week focused on the county’s partnerships with nonprofits and the criminal justice system, with visits from District Attorney David Weeks and Assistant District Attorney Jack Choate. The two touched on what it’s like to work on a capital murder case and the time it takes labs to test evidence for DNA.

“People call me a lawyer, and I say, I’m not a lawyer, I’m a prosecutor. I’ve never sued anybody,” Weeks told the class. “One of the hardest things for us to deal with is the discretion that we have as prosecutors because when someone’s case comes before me, I can determine which charges are appropriate. … In determining what kind of plea bargain you want to offer, you’ve got to look at historical factors, for one. What have juries or judges done in similar cases?”

“Our duty is not to convict, but to see that justice is done, and sometimes that means hard decisions,” Choate added, before talking about the CSI affect — “We don’t have some machine that we go and plug DNA into and it spits out exactly who did it. I wish we did. That would be really cool. But that’s not real life.” — and the importance of grand juries, “a group of citizens that stands between the power of the government and the individual. … I look at them as the conscience of the community.”

Political Science Junior Fellows member Robert Laughran, a student at Sam Houston State University, shows the decisions his table’s “commissioners” made while balancing a psuedo county discretionary funds budget during the third week of County U.

The presentation was a lead-in to an interactive exercise in which the students got to play prosecutor amongst a team of prosecutors. A star college athlete who found his home ransacked and property destroyed breaks the nose of his top suspect, who is innocent. Do prosecutors seek the maximum, 2-20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine? Or do they go for 10 years probation, or allow a plea for a lesser charge? The victim wants the maximum sentence, but as Weeks and Yawn explained, the prosecutor works for the State. “We have this idea that they have unlimited resources and unlimited time to get to the bottom of all of this, but like all of us in our jobs, they have constraints,” Yawn told the class, before smaller groups began tackling the problem at hand.

The groups chose plea bargains with various lengths of probation.

“He is to pay for the property damage and medical bills, be on probation for three years, do at least 40 hours of community service in which he is to speak to other university and high school athletes about his poor decision-making and rush to judgment, and is charged with a misdemeanor assault charge,” said Rachel Larrison Yarabeck, a resident who took the course to network with county officials about the non-profit she works for. “(Attending County U) was a great PR move on my part. I’m learning far more than I ever imagined, but find it most helpful as I gain experience in mentoring and educating at-risk teens and young adults. I’m better able to guide them to the correct person or county office.”

The third week tackled the county’s budget, and Duke, Tax Assessor-Collector Diana McRae and District Clerk Robyn Flowers all attended, giving their two cents as students debated budget theories and the merits of funding some items before others. The fourth week, students visited with Sheriff Clint McRae and Emergency Services Coordinator Butch Davis. They also toured the county’s emergency storm shelter and jail.

“If you have the elected official that is participating, they may be able to use that exercise to show people some of the decisions that have to be made by the commissioners, or even by the elected official,” said Duke, adding that she’ll be returning to the program as long as it continues to find new students. “It just enhances their understanding of the whole process.”

The final week, they graduated.

“This course has really helped me see what role county government plays in my life,” said SHSU student Cameron Goodman, a Political Science Junior Fellow. “The main thing that has helped me is being able to hear from county officials themselves instead of simply reading about the office and its duties.”

“I didn’t think that county government had an everyday impact on my life, but now I understand that without it all levels of government would function differently,” added Robert Loughran, another SHSU student involved with Political Science Junior Fellows. “The better you understand government, the more benefit you can receive from it.”