MIDLAND COUNTY, Texas — Midland District Attorney Laura Nodolf's lawsuit against County Judge Terry Johnson has been dismissed in court.
The dismissal was handed down August 19.
According to official court documents, Judge W. Stacy Trotter said that despite Nodolf's insistence that the county budget be prepared and filed by July 31, there did not appear to be any precedent supporting that claim.
Because Johnson filed the budget on August 6 as he said he intended to and there was no such deadline as implied by Nodolf in a section of the Texas Government Code, Nodolfs request for declaratory relief was denied.
However, based on Nodolf's insistence that the citizens of Midland County be provided adequate time to review and address any concerns within the county budge, Judge Trotter ordered that the public hearing on the budget be held on September 21.
This order comes after County Attorney Russell Malm moved to dismiss the lawsuit but was denied.
The following is a statement from County Judge Terry Johnson:
Today, State District Judge Stacy Trotter supported our position that Midland’s District Attorney Laura Nodolf's lawsuit was baseless and frivolous by dismissing her lawsuit. I would like to thank Judge Trotter for taking time from his schedule to come to Midland and deal with this issue. While I am excited that Judge Trotter ruled in our favor, I cannot help but share my disappointment as well as the disappointment of hundreds of other Midlander’s. The District Attorney should know better and she does know better. After seeing 5 of her past 6 budgets being filed on the same schedule and after she was aware of the budget schedule in May of this year, she chooses this year's budget as her most important fight against the injustices taking place in Midland County.
I am sorely disappointed that DA Nodolf, who I am told, has lost four of the past five murder cases she's tried. She has used taxpayer dollars to fund a frivolous lawsuit and has allowed herself to be manipulated into this embarrassing position by Commissioner Precinct 1, Scott Ramsey, and together they have stooped to this level of petty politics. The District Attorney has proven that she is not up to the task of prosecuting criminals, instead she would rather try to rack up small wins with ill-advised and malicious charges. She has proven that her objectives are not the people's objectives. She has proven that she will misuse the public’s trust, time and treasure. This punitive action was petty, ill advised, vindictive and as proven, meritless. Her job is to prosecute the bad guys in our community: Ma’am, I am not one of those bad guys. It is my opinion that this District Attorney should take this opportunity to resign her position with the office of the District Attorney.
I believe it is also time for our community to provide a wakeup call to Commissioner Scott Ramsey. Commissioner Ramsey has repeatedly demonstrated that he will manipulate the levers of government for personal political reasons. His public words encouraged this lawsuit and I suspect his private words did also along with former officials. All this while voting to increase his pay by 8% and while supporting the bad fiscal management at the Midland County Horseshoe Arena. His want of power to be able to raise property taxes beyond the statutory limit by these actions now put him on record. At this time, he is on the wrong side of most consequential votes on the Commissioner's Court. His approach to governance is also both personal and petty. Midland deserves better. It is time for him to be the responsible leader that the citizens of Midland expect.
Unlike most entities, I have proposed and presented, on time, a no-tax increase budget while still maintaining the highest levels of county services we can provide. It is time to get back to County business, the people's business. Politics need to occupy a back seat to the real work at hand.
District Attorney Laura Nodolf responded to Johnson with the following statement.
As your elected District Attorney, Texas law imposes a duty on me to ensure that a county officer who is entrusted with public funds is not neglecting or abusing his duties. Whether I want to or not, I am required by law to “institute proceedings that are necessary to compel the performance of a county officer …who is … failing to discharge his duties under the law.” The county judge claims that the filing of a proposed budget is not one of his duties. Under Texas Law, the county judge is the only elected official that can file the proposed budget.
Contrary to the county judge’s statements, this lawsuit was not “frivolous” or “petty”. In fact, the court ruled that it was legal for me to pursue the lawsuit. The Court’s ruling yesterday recognized that the “citizens of Midland County” should be provided sufficient time to review and address any potential budgetary concerns.” The Court’s ruling ensures the County Commissioners and citizens of Midland County have a defined amount of time to consider the budget. The Court set the public hearing for the adoption of the Midland County budget on September 21st . The Midland County budget will go into effect on October 1st. Obtaining relief for the public is what I was seeking when I filed this lawsuit to protect the citizens of Midland County.