county judge will be out of the state from late december until mid january.....he was re-elected and needs to be sworn in.....is it a problem if he takes the oath when he gets back in the state mid january....he will miss the first commissioners court meeting of the year at the first of january.

He continues in office until he, as his own successor, "qualifies" for office by taking the oath and filing his bond, per Tex. Const. art. 16, sec. 17. The commissioners court can handle presiding officer duties within its own discretion. Our county judge suffered a stroke a couple of months ago, then got re-elected. As he recovers, our commissioners have simply rotated the presiding officer duties among themselves, and have voted to authorize the current "presiding officer" to sign off on any instruments requiring the county judge's "commissioners court hat" signature. It's rolled pretty smoothly so far.