HELOTES MUNICIPAL COURT
RAISING AWARENESS Helotes Municipal Court Clerk, Andrea Goff (center), and Deputy Court Clerks Yolanda Guttierrez and Moses Gaitan, celebrate Municipal Court Week by providing educational materials to the community.
to Curb Distracted Driving By Beth Graham
In Texas, municipal courts are a big part of the State’s judicial system: there are over 900 municipal courts in the State and 1,260 judges. In fact, 36 percent of the Statewide judiciary is comprised of municipal court judges. In a year, they can issue approximately 2 million warrants and hear more than 7 million cases. In Helotes, the Municipal Court handles around 600 cases a month. All this activity, under the direction of the Honorable Judge Mario Treviño, is managed by Municipal Court Clerk Andrea Goff and two Deputy Court Clerks. For most people, the phrase “municipal court” probably conjures troublesome visions of paying traffic tickets or having to prove that, yes, you did put your car inspection sticker on after that police officer stopped you. In fact, the Helotes Municipal Court “…processes all fine-only, Class C misdemeanor traffic and ordinance violations written by the Helotes Police, Fire, Animal Control, Public Works, Building, and Code Enforcement
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Departments.” This could include anything from a minor in possession to noisy dogs to parking tickets. But, in Helotes, Court officials take seriously the Citywide mission to serve all members of the public; they are moving beyond warrants and citations and into education and prevention with a series of community outreach programs that aim to make the community and its residents safer. The City’s innovative approach has earned Statewide recognition and a positive response from residents. With an increase in impaired driving incidents nationwide, Ms. Goff saw a need to educate the community on the dangers of driving while impaired, whether through substances or by using a cellphone. “You don’t really expect it happen to you,” Andrea says, “so it’s important to show how easily drivers can become distracted or impaired and how devastating the results can be.” With that in mind, in 2015, Helotes Municipal Court officials began a concerted effort to “create better drivers and better pedestrians.”
Helotes: Gateway to the Texas Hill Country – Summer 2018