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DETCOG Board Hears from Texas Association of Counties Executive Director
Crockett, Texas – Texas Association of Counties (TAC) Executive Director, Gene Terry, spoke to the Deep East Texas Council of Governments Board of Directors Thursday in Crockett. Terry talked of TAC’s history and purpose. Although having only been in the TAC Executive Director’s position for six weeks, Terry previously served as Marion County Judge and most recently was an instructor in TAC’s continuing education program.
Terry related that like most organizations, the Texas Association of Counties started with an affiliated group of individuals recognizing a need to address a specific situation. In TAC’s case it was county judges discovering, after the law went into effect in September of 1964, they had to find an additional four thousand dollars a year to pay their county’s juvenile judge. The need to know what was happening in the Texas Legislature caused the judges to organize to monitor legislative activity. In 1974 the organization added the organization and operation of a Worker’s Compensation Insurance pool when the insurance was mandated by the legislature. That later led to professional liability insurance and a continuing education program for county officials. Every county in Texas, except Harris, is a member of TAC and it has one hundred ninety five employees.
“It’s hard for me to get anywhere when I’m traveling around Texas because I always want to stop at the courthouses,” said Terry, “It’s important that I know what problems county judges and commissioners are having.” Terry said he thought it was important for TAC to meet new problems “head-on”. He closed by pledging his organization would not develop an Austin insider’s view, he called it becoming “Austinized”, but would maintain a “courthouse perspective”.
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