Wow.
Carla Wyatt
Harris County commissioners unanimously voted Thursday to strip County Treasurer Carla Wyatt’s office of a key responsibility and pursue abolishing the office entirely during the next legislative session.
It’s the first step in a long process that could require approval from a majority of voters both statewide and within Harris County. Commissioners voted 4-0 to add abolishing the office to the county’s legislative agenda, the items the county will ask lawmakers to support during the next legislative session in January 2027.
The move came after treasurer’s office staff approved for payment two fraudulent checks totaling nearly $53,000, according to a county document obtained by the Houston Chronicle. Fraudsters intercepted and altered two checks, one for $24,328 and another for $27,530, intended for county vendors. A county financial system that alerts officials of potential problems flagged the payments, but the treasurer’s office approved them anyway, the document shows.
Commissioners unanimously approved transferring that alert system and the employees tasked with overseeing it from the treasurer’s office to the Office of Management and Budget.
While the funds have since been recovered, it’s the latest in a series of mistakes that have shaken commissioners’ faith in Wyatt, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the fraud incident late Thursday.
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Wyatt, who is running for re-election in 2026 and is unopposed in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, also is the only candidate in the race for treasurer who has not submitted her Jan. 15 campaign finance report. Wyatt did not respond to a request for comment earlier this week regarding the missing report.
The treasurer’s office also has not uploaded monthly distribution or treasurer’s reports to its website since early 2025. Although not required by law, reports were published on the office’s website each month from 2017 through 2024. The treasurer’s office did not respond to questions about the reports.
Some officials consider the treasurer’s office obsolete, and it has been abolished in 10 counties, including Galveston County, which shuttered the office in 2023. Critics of the county treasurer, such as Republican Galveston County Judge Mark Henry, argue the office is an antiquated position that has long outlived its usefulness.
“In the 1830s, people were trading with gold, silver and probably even Confederate money for that matter. They did not have the systems we have today,” Henry previously told the Chronicle. “It’s generally an unnecessary office because we don’t do things the way we did 250 years ago.”
Henry said the office’s responsibilities were easily assigned to other Galveston County officials, such as the county clerk.
The amendment that abolished Galveston County’s treasurer required approval from a majority of voters within the county and statewide to pass. Nine other counties, including Bexar County, have abolished their treasurers, but only some included language requiring majority approval from county voters and statewide.
See here, here, and here for the background. Politically speaking, I doubt this happens – at least at this time – if Carla Wyatt had drawn a primary challenger. With there being no good outcome in November, at least from a Democratic perspective, I imagine this was an easy call.
There have long been debates about the need for a Treasurer’s office. The state used to have such an office – Ann Richards was State Treasurer before she was Governor – but it was abolished in 1996 by Democrat Martha Whitehead, who campaigned on a promise to do exactly that if elected. Harris County Democratic candidate Richard Garcia campaigned on abolishing the office when he ran in 2006. This is an unusual set of circumstances that led to where we are today.
It’s not that a Treasurer was never useful, it’s mostly that its purpose, like that of a county surveyor, has come and gone. Simply put, there was more for a Treasurer to do in a financially analog world, since one of their duties is writing and depositing checks. The office of Harris County Treasurer had some of its other duties removed by Commissioners Court in the 90s thanks in part to bad blood between then-Treasurer (and always-doofus) Don Sumners and then-Commissioner Steve Radack. I wrote in that post about how longtime Treasurer Jack Cato, who ousted Sumners in a primary, never made the news; that became a running gag about Orlando Sanchez while he was Treasurer (that and his magazine subscription budget). I suppose Carla Wyatt has provided evidence for the thesis that the less one knows about what the Treasurer is up to, the better. We’ll see how this proceeds and whether Judge Hidalgo, who was not there for this vote, opposes the action. Houston Public Media has more.