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Constable: Dispute with justice of the peace is over redistricting

An apparent feud between the Travis County Precinct 2 justice of the peace and his top court officer continued to play out in public Thursday, as Constable Adan Ballesteros accused Judge Glenn Bass of recalling 13,000 warrants because he opposed the constable's plan to redistrict the precinct to include an area with "a large minority population."

According to a statement issued by Ballesteros, Bass told him that if the constable continued with his redistricting plan, Bass would consider it "a personal attack on him."

Through a spokeswoman, Bass declined to comment on Ballesteros' accusations.

On Wednesday, Bass issued an order recalling thousands of outstanding misdemeanor warrants in his court.

He said the constable's office engaged in offering payment plans to some, but not all, defendants, a practice that Bass said "had no basis in the law."

He also accused the office of not collecting some of those warrants because they needed to save some for next year's budget. The warrants total nearly $3.75 million, Bass said.

Bass, a Republican with a background in business, was elected last year. Ballesteros, a Democrat elected in 2008 , said that he and Bass have been in a fight over redistricting their Northwest Austin area into one that includes more of the central area around Metric Boulevard, Rutland Drive and Braker Lane.

Ballesteros said their Burnet Road office is very close to the edge of Precinct 2 and is surrounded by Precinct 1 and Precinct 5 — the latter of which he wants to expand into while losing part of an area near the Colorado River.

"The area around the Precinct 2 office in question has many apartments and single family homes and a large minority population," Ballesteros said in his statement. "Judge Bass does not want to serve this area."

In a video of a redistricting meeting last week, Bass said that the move would make his court much busier by adding more hearings related to apartment evictions.

"We're already representing ... 43 percent of revenue for all JP courts," Bass said in the video. "This would give us higher volume."

Bass also said that Ballesteros' plan would dilute Hispanic representation in the precinct by taking residents from a precinct where minorities represent 30 percent of the population to one where they are 26 percent of the population.

Ballesteros said in an interview that his deputies — law enforcement deputies who primarily serve the courts — have been doing community outreach in the Precinct 5 area, despite it not being in his jurisdiction.

VERY IMPORTANT! « Pukirahe's Blog

VERY IMPORTANT!

Guest Post

by David Maytan

  David’s Notes on the Talks by Mr. Grossmann at the Swedish Baha’i Winter School

  January 5-8, 2011

 During Mr. Grossmann’s opening remarks, he mentioned that he had a consultation with the Universal House of Justice about what was appropriate for him to share with the Friends at the German and Swedish Winter Schools .  All that he will say comes from the Writings, the messages of the Universal House of Justice and his consultation with the Universal House of Justice.   Remember that Mr. Grossmann was a member of the Universal House of Justice between 2005-2010 and a member of the ITC 20 years before that.

 He stated that The Lesser Peace will be established by 2021 (war forbidden) and that by then, the leaders of the world will gather to investigate alternatives after a period of great suffering and will turn to the Baha’is to reorganize the world as the Baha’i Faith has shown only to be of service to mankind and is already established around the world.  The new Baha’i ‘troops’ will then join in even in greater numbers.