Municipal Court Clerk
Career
Frederick P. Garcia Jr. was appointed Municipal Court Clerk in July 2006. In his role, he directs and coordinates administrative functions and operations for the Municipal Court. Mr. Garcia is also a representative on behalf of the court with City Council, the Mayor, and City Manager.
During his tenure, Mr. Garcia has increased case management efficiency by 25%. He also created and implemented a Class C family violence reporting process to the Department of Public Safety. The San Antonio Municipal Court was the first city in the state to voluntarily report to DPS.
Mr. Garcia also completed a multiyear process to reclassify court staff requiring clerk certification, increased wages, and higher standards of professionalism.
He established the court’s pre-appearance notification process to ensure the court’s alignment with statute changes stemming from the 86th Texas Legislature. He implemented the Court's traffic safety team to coordinate initiatives and campaigns for traffic safety awareness. The team provides traffic safety outreach and education to the community, internal and external court users, and City employees.
Fred’s most recent accomplishments include implementation of an improvement team to focus on strategy, data, and equity. The team advances City-wide and Court-wide initiatives such as embedding equity in day-to-day operations, utilizes data-informed decision-making, and operationalizes procedural fairness practices in court operations and processes to enhance customer service, and ensure the integrity and reliability of case records. He restructured court operations to consolidate service delivery that would maximize employee utilization to address court users’ current and future needs for court records. His is currently championing increased online and other remote access to court services, and review of court processes for service delivery improvement.
Prior to his career with the San Antonio Municipal Court, Fred was a private practice attorney specializing in criminal and juvenile defense work. He was also a prosecutor for the City Attorney’s Office before going into private practice.
Fred is committed to justice and equity practices. He champions his court team's dedication to high performance, and continuous commitment to the Purposes and Responsibilities of courts. He believes in leading with a heart to serve not only the public, but his entire court team.
Education
- St. Mary’s University, Bachelor of Business Administration, 1982
- Texas Tech University School of Law, Doctor of Jurisprudence, 1986
- State Bar of Texas, Licensed Attorney, 1987
- National Center for State Courts – Institute for Court Management, Certified Court Manager, 2020
Professional Memberships
- Texas Municipal Courts Education Center, Faculty for Judicial and Clerk education (2009 – present)
- Texas Court Clerks Association, member (2009 – present)
- National Association for Court Management, member (2017 – present)
- National Center for State Courts, member (2017 – present)
Awards & Mentorship
- 2014 Extraordinary Achievement Award – Texas Court Clerks Association
- 2015 Outstanding Contributions to Small Business Development – City of San Antonio Economic Development Office
- 2019 Municipal Traffic Safety Award, New Applicant – Texas Municipal Courts Education Center
- 2020 Municipal Traffic Safety Award, High Volume Court – Texas Municipal Courts Education Center
- 2020 Employer Traffic Safety Honorable Mention – National Safety Council, Our Driving Concern
- 2020 Named by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct to serve as a jurist’s mentor to provide guidance on the improvement of courtroom conduct, decorum, and ethical practices within the Texas judicial.
Personal
Fred is a native of San Antonio. He is a board member for the Texas Burn Survivor’s Society and serves as an officer with the Knights of Columbus in his local parish. He has a wife, a son, two daughters, and a crazy but loyal dog.