On January 8, 2019, Judge Becerra was present in a Hays County Commissioners Court Session. During the session there was no motion made to approve the bond for Beccera. There was no second or vote to approve the motion to accept his bond for office of County Judge:
On January 15, 2019, without the presence of Judge Beccera, the Hays County Commissioners Court approved the January 8, 2019 meeting minutes. The minutes approved, again, fail to mention any motion, second, or vote to accept Judge Becerra’s bond for office of County Judge:
The Texas Public Information Act (TPIA) has provide records that Judge Becerra took his Oath of Office on or about January 1, 2019:
The document was recorded by the Hays County Government on January 18, 2019. In the recording are two pages. The first page is provided above and is the Oath of Office. The second page is the bond filed with the Hays County Government that was never properly received:
As one may see, in prior years there is a specific line item which is created to approve the bonds of newly elected officials:
Time and time again, while reviewing the Hays County Commissioners Court meeting minutes, there are these line items to approve bonds, throughout history, but during Judge Becerra’s appointment in January 2019, that line item does not exist.
Judge Beccera may be without proper bond while performing Hays County Government duties. The Hays County Government may have improperly accepted and filed his bond.
Judge Becerra’s Office has been less than forthcoming with information on the topic. The Office cannot go back in time and fix the lack of vote. It will be interesting to see what the Hays County Government decides to do on this matter.
Again, in summary, Judge Becerra was in Commissioners Court on January 8, 2019. No motion was made to accept his bond. No second was made to approve the motion. No vote was taken to accept his bond. On January 15, 2019, the Commissioners Court approved the meeting minutes for January 8, 2019. Judge Becerra was not in session on January 15, 2019. On January 18, 2019, Judge Becerra’s bond was posted with the Hays County Government, but no vote was ever taken. History has shown there to be a specific line item to motion, approve, and vote on acceptance of bonds for newly elected officials. This did not and has not happened (to our knowledge) with Judge Becerra.
Also, an interesting note, at the time of publishing this story, we went to the Commissioners Court Meeting Minutes for January 2019 and they are no longer posted online. We already had a copy of the meeting minutes before reverifying them to be online and accessible to the general public: