Legal question: Is it legal for the county judge to be an authorized signature on the county's bank accounts?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Under the Local Government Code (sec. 113.041(a)), "[t]he county treasurer shall disburse the money belonging to the county and shall pay and apply the money as requried by law and as the commissioners court may require or direct, not inconsistent with law." If your county has a county auditor, LGC sec. 113.043 requires any check or warrant to be countersigned by the auditor before it may be paid. So those are your two officers who have statutory authority to sign checks on the general fund. Arguably, under the Supreme Court's analysis in Comm'rs Ct. of Titus County v. Agan, any attempt to divest the treasurer of the checkwriting (a/k/a "disbursement") function would be an impermissible incursion into one of the treasurer's statutory core functions.

Scott thanks for the help. The treasurer does sign every check and normally our auditor is the one that countersigns the check. We had a situation where auditor out of town and county judge countersigned the check. Auditor wanted to know if it was legal for county judge to be signer (i.e. countersigner) on the check. The county judge is a authorized signature on the bank account.

As always this forum is wonderful resource.