Community Impact reports that on January 28th Montgomery County Commissioners postponed action on a policy proposal that would limit elected officials who were unsuccessful in re-election from moving county assets or spending county funds.
Commissioners were told by County Budget Director Amanda Carter that former Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack, who was unsuccessful in his 2024 election bid, had spent around 37 percent of the budget for Precinct 3 for Fiscal Year 2024-25. Texas Local Government Code says an elected official who does not return to their seat is limited to spending 25 percent of their annual budget. The county places the remaining 75 percent in a separate account which is not allowed to be used until the new elected official takes office.
Back in 2024, Ritch Wheeler was sucessfully elected to the seat and was sworn in on January 1st.
County Auditor Rakesh Pandey, however said Commissioner Noack used carryover funds of $1.19 million dollars—which are not part of the budget for commissioners—by way of several items on the court’s November and December agenda that required the Precinct 3 commissioner’s office to finalize payments on projects with work completed, like turn-lane improvements. The carryover funds, according to Carter, were left over from the budget for Fiscal Year 2023-24 budget cycle that had not yet been spent or allocated in the current fiscal year.
According to Wheeler, pushing them even further are open purchasing orders they will have to pay. He said what they’re attempting to do “is just scrape money from anywhere we can to try to get through the year.”
The policy proposal to have a policy keeping officials from moving county assets when leaving an elected position came after officials reported that office furniture and equipment was removed from or transferred from the Precinct 3 office before January 1st.
Judge Keough proposed a policy that would limit how much an elected official could spend without getting approval from the court, including:
–$20,000 in operations or capital projects
–$1,500 in office purchases
–$500 in travel expenses
There was opposition to the amounts from Commissioners Riley, Gray and Wheeler. No policy was adopted. Gray will draft a new policy to be brought back at a later date.
