Justice of the Peace Keith Baker is throwing in the towel in his heavyweight fight with county commissioners.
In a letter sent Wednesday to Commissioner Kevin Wolff and District Attorney Susan Reed, Baker wrote, "I plan on ending my 30 years of public service by retiring December 31, 2012."
My fellow Trouble Shooter Mireya Villarreal broke the story that Baker was refusing to issue warrants after one of his clerk positions was cut last year. As a result, the county lost out on more than $750,000 this year.
County Commissioners and Reed accused Baker of retaliating against the county. Last week during a budget meeting, Wolff asked the DA's office to research removing Baker from his elected position.
Baker tried to repair the damage and worked this past weekend with his existing staff to process nearly 1,000 warrants. But it was too little too late for both Reed and Wolff. More than 9,000 warrants are still pending. Both sides met Tuesday and worked out the deal in which Baker would exit his office at the end of the year.
"We're all going to work together to figure out how to get this backload of warrants out and catch up on some of the things that have fallen behind," Wolff said.
— Brian Collister, WOAI Investigative Reporter. Find him online at woai-com. Watch his Beneby report here. Email tips to briancollister@woaitv.com.
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