After almost two years of scandal and reforms at the Texas Youth Commission, a state advisory panel recommended late Wednesday that the youth agency be merged with the smooth-running Juvenile Probation Commission.

The Sunset Advisory Commission voted 6-5 to create a new Texas Juvenile Justice Department — as the commission's staff had recommended months ago.

"The youth of Texas will be better served, and the state's resources will be better allocated if we move to a single agency," said commission Chairman Carl Isett, a Republican House member from Lubbock. "We need to move while the clay is wet and consolidate these agencies and make this a seamless system."

Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, said the merger amounts to "chopping the head off" the Youth Commission at a time when it's making strides at improvement.

"This is not the way to go," McClendon said. "This will jeopardize the viability of both of them."

Although the commission voted for a merger, Isett made it clear that he intends for the probation agency, not the Youth Commission, to prevail operationally.

Under the recommendation, the new department would be overseen by an 11-member board appointed by the governor. Its members would include members of the public, judges, probation chiefs, county officials, professional educators and others with experience working with children.

The recommendation by the commission, which is tasked with periodically reviewing the operations of state agencies, now goes to the Legislature for final discussion and a vote. The recommendation could be altered or rejected there.

Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, who has been championing the merger for months, said that consolidating "two high-paid executive staffs into one" will bring savings to taxpayers.

Although expressing concern that some Youth Commission reforms have been too slowly implemented, Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, questioned whether a merger was a good course. He and Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, argued that more time is needed to measure whether the agencies should stay separate.

Officials at both agencies had opposed the merger, arguing that each was responsible for distinctly separate operations — the Youth Commission to incarcerate and supervise on parole the worst juvenile offenders in state custody, the Probation Commission to oversee lesser offenders under the supervision of county-run probation agencies.

Almost two years ago, the Texas Youth Commission made headlines amid allegations that incarcerated teenage boys had been sexually assaulted by officials and that the agency's top brass failed to investigate or even covered up some cases.

Gov. Rick Perry placed the agency in conservatorship, most of the Youth Commission's top officials were fired or resigned and lawmakers approved a sweeping reform bill in 2007.