One way or another, this needs to be decided by a judge.
Fort Bend’s battle over who is legally running county government is now headed to court.
Fort Bend interim County Judge Daniel Wong filed suit Monday against County Attorney Bridgette Smith-Lawson, asking a district court to declare that he remains the county’s lawful judge despite Smith-Lawson’s conclusion that his appointment ended last month.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare that Wong’s appointment remains valid, that the Texas Constitution requires him to continue serving until a successor is qualified and that Smith-Lawson exceeded her legal authority by directing county employees to treat his appointment as terminated.
It also seeks temporary and permanent injunctions preventing further actions that interfere with his appointment.
Smith-Lawson said Monday she stands by her legal opinion that Wong’s appointment ended when the civil removal lawsuit was dismissed and called the lawsuit “a professional bullying tactic disguised in a lawsuit.” She said her office has a duty to advise county officials when it believes legal exposure exists and said a formal response to the lawsuit is forthcoming.
[…]
The lawsuit alleges Smith-Lawson refused to provide legal advice to Commissioners Court during a closed executive session because she disputed Wong’s authority to preside.
Wong asks the court to declare that his appointment remains in effect, that the Texas Constitution requires him to continue serving until a successor is qualified and that Smith-Lawson acted outside her legal authority by directing county employees to terminate his access to county resources. He also asks the court to order Smith-Lawson to rescind those directives.
Chris Hilton, one of Wong’s attorneys, said the lawsuit seeks to confirm that Wong’s appointment remains valid.
“Bridgette Smith-Lawson is wasting valuable Fort Bend County resources in pursuit of her own partisan, political agenda,” Hilton said in a statement. “Rather than serve her constituents, she is abusing her office by pushing ridiculous opinions that have no basis in law and bullying County employees into helping her block Judge Wong from doing his job.”
In her response Monday, Smith-Lawson said she was carrying out the responsibilities of her office by advising county officials of what she believes is the legal status of Wong’s appointment.
“I am exercising the duties of this office which is to inform the members of the court and employees of information that would create legal exposure which includes someone occupying an office without clear legal authority to do so,” she said.
Smith-Lawson also said the dispute reflects what she described as a broader conflict between her office and the Republican majority on Commissioners Court following the court’s partisan shift last year. She said the county has spent taxpayer dollars on outside legal counsel instead of relying on the county attorney’s office.
“I am not surprised at this lawsuit, but I am disappointed,” Smith-Lawson said. “Only the people of Fort Bend County and their tax dollars will suffer.”
See here and here for some background. I don’t think either Wong or Smith-Lawson are making ridiculous arguments, which is why I think it’s best to let a judge settle it. It doesn’t sound like there’s been any application of this law, at least not anytime recently, so who knows what a closer look might find. I do think the argument that the appointment was meant to be temporary and comes with an expiration date is sound and is what the law ought to be – let the elected Commissioners Court make the longer-lasting decision, it’s more democratic. I also think this is a solid argument for why a caretaker should be the default choice as a temporary replacement, but that’s outside the scope of the law or this dispute. I hope there’s a quick court date for this, let’s get it settled one way or the other.
IANAL, but it seems off to me to give this interim position to any candidate running for the office. It smacks of unfair advantage to me.
Time for one of the least-known procedures in Texas law: the writ of quo warranto. Justice Sullivan gave a nice history of the writ in a concurrence in the recent case involving the Democratic legislators who broke quorum.