All four Fort Bend County commissioners convened Thursday with Interim County Judge Daniel Wong, temporarily pausing a two-and-a-half-month standoff over Wong’s legal authority to preside.
Democratic Commissioners Dexter McCoy and Grady Prestage have maintained since they walked out of a June 25 meeting that Wong’s interim appointment expired the week prior. They didn’t change their minds on that matter but attended Thursday’s meeting because state law requires a “supermajority” of four commissioners to adopt a tax rate, around which the county budget is set.
After pointing out that Fort Bend County could face serious financial implications if Wong’s vote is later determined invalid. Prestage joined Wong and Republican Commissioners Vincent Morales and Andy Meyers to pass a tax rate of 40.7 cents per $100 of taxable value, a decrease from the current 41.2-cent rate. McCoy walked out of the meeting during the tax rate vote and later returned to vote against the budget.
When McCoy referred to the tax rate reduction as an “11th hour proposal” and asked for a financial analysis of how it would impact revenues and future budgets, Wong replied, “There’s nothing to scrutinize. This is not an 11th hour discussion. You guys showed up at the 11th hour, as a matter of fact.”
The Dems were unable to thwart the budget passage, but McCoy said he wanted to make clear for the record that he opposes a restructuring of the county attorney’s office and the elimination of three associate judge positions. He said he also wanted to force Wong and the GOP commissioners to answer questions publicly about their budget proposals.
Prestage implored Wong to “be a patriot for once” and recuse himself from voting on the budget and tax rate, noting that because the validity of Wong’s appointment has been called into question, there could be legal challenges to any votes he participates in.
“We can have a clean vote, without question or we can have one that will have a cloud of suspicion over it,” Prestage said.
McCoy said his presence at Thursday’s meeting “in no way, shape or form affirms that Daniel Wong has any authority to conduct business as an acting county judge. My presence here today is twofold: one, to the extent possible, to ensure we have a quorum and four lawful votes to pass a county tax rate.”
“In an ideal world, Daniel Wong would do the honorable thing and recuse himself from voting on these important items so as not to taint them with his disputed vote,” McCoy added. “And, two, to shed light and force discussion as Daniel Wong and my Republican colleagues have sought to use their positions as retaliation against elected officials and county staff. No court to date has issued any order affirming that Mr. Wong has any legal authority to sit in this seat.”
Wong refused to abstain. When questioned about the changes to the county attorney’s office, Wong said it would make operations more efficient and effective. Members of the packed gallery shouted, “How?”
Fort Bend County’s $841 million budget, approved 3-2 with the Democrats voting against it, allows for 2.5 percent cost-of-living increases for county employees. McCoy said his vote to reject the budget was not a vote against the employee raises.
“I want to make this abundantly clear because I’ve seen the nature of the spin that comes out of this room,” McCoy said. “I believe that the employees of this county deserve to be compensated for the work that they do. I believe that the hardworking people who serve this community should be able to have the resources they need to do their jobs. My vote today, let the record reflect, is a reflection of what I believe to be unlawful actions of this court in removing staff and personnel from elected officials’ offices, which does not represent the best interests of this county.”
There are a lot of layers contributing to how Fort Bend County government got to its current state, dating back to former County Judge KP George’s party switch from Democrat to Republican in 2025, which gave the court a GOP majority that Wong and his GOP colleagues don’t want to lose.
George was convicted in March of felony money laundering. A day after George’s sentencing in June, he was suspended from office by a visiting Republican judge who appointed Wong to serve as an interim judge.
When a civil suit that prompted George’s suspension and Wong’s appointment was dropped, some — including County Attorney Bridgette Smith-Lawson — said they believed that Wong’s appointment was over. Wong and his hired counsel disagreed.
Wong is on the November ballot facing McCoy for the full four-year term as Fort Bend County judge.
Since McCoy and Prestage walked out in June, several lawsuits have been filed, but it doesn’t appear that the validity of Wong’s interim appointment will be settled before the election. A trial date is set for November 10. The election is November 3.
Meanwhile, the tax rate, by law, has to be adopted by the end of September. It could have been deferred on Thursday and taken up at the next commissioners court meeting on September 24, but obviously that didn’t happen.
During an August 27 meeting, the Republicans proposed moving most of Smith-Lawson’s staff and funding under a newly created department that reports directly to commissioners court. The court also agreed to remove three of the county’s eight associate judges.
Those proposals were affirmed Thursday as part of the budget vote, meaning the restructuring of Smith-Lawson’s office is slated to begin October 1. The associate judges have been told they’ll be able to keep their jobs through the end of the year.
Wong and Meyers have said that the changes to Smith-Lawson’s office are not retaliatory, as the county attorney alleged, and pointed out that the GOP commissioners didn’t propose the changes because they disagree with Smith-Lawson’s legal advice but rather because they “lost confidence in the competence, consistency, timeliness and reliability of the civil legal services being provided to Commissioners Court.”
Smith-Lawson, however, has said that “efforts to strip the office of its responsibilities, staff and resources because its legal advice is unwelcome sets a dangerous precedent for every elected official, county employees, and every resident of Fort Bend County.” The county attorney’s supporters say the restructuring could move up to 15 lawyers out of Smith-Lawson’s office to instead report to outside counsel overseeing a county department.
As for the elimination of judges, Dennis Spellman, a staffer in Meyers’ office, said three associate judge positions were funded by federal American Rescue Plan Act money provided in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds are expiring, and the court is faced with determining whether to turn those positions into “a permanent local taxpayer obligation,” he said in an email.
Several district judges and associate judges representing both political parties opposed the change at the August 27 meeting and again on Thursday, saying that important court proceedings will be delayed and incarceration times will be extended by the elimination of judge positions, thus punishing Fort Bend County residents and taxpayers.
Spellman countered that Fort Bend County is adding two full district judges with broader judicial authority funded primarily by the state. “The net change is one fewer judicial position, but with two new judges who have more authority than associate judges,” he said.
In a press conference prior to Thursday’s commissioners court meeting, McCoy said that assertion is “absolute folly.”
“We’ve already been through this last year and the year before. There is no one who believes that it is in the best interest of the county to reduce the courts,” he said. “If our caseload isn’t diminishing, why would we hamstring the ability of the courts to work efficiently? It doesn’t make any sense. If they actually wanted to be concerned with costs to the county, maybe don’t hire outside counsel to duplicate efforts that the elected county attorney’s staff is already performing.”
McCoy was joined at his press conference by Prestage, Texas Sen. Borris Miles and Texas Reps. Suleman Lalani and Ron Reynolds. The group said it wanted to expose “the chaos and corruption Daniel Wong and Republican commissioners are imposing on Fort Bend County.”
“Where’s the democracy when you can go outside of your county and pick a Republican judge to appoint somebody to sit in the seat temporarily while they’re on the ballot for the first time for that same seat?” Miles asked. “Where is the democracy in that?”
