The Sheriff�s Office needs to hire a part time deputy. A deputy from another county has applied for the job and the Sheriff from both counties has agreed that he can work as part time deputy. Is there a problem with the deputy working for two counties?

Deputies are employees, not officers, so there is no dual officeholding issue subject to the prohibitive effect of art. 16, sec. 40 of the Texas Constitution. Deputies don't appoint themselves, so there would be no self-appointment incompatability. Likewise, conflicting loyalties incompatability probably wouldn't apply, since counties do not have overlapping jurisdiction with each other. Ultimately, it's probably a question subject to answer by any applicable outside employment policy of either sheriff's department.

The deputy may need to consider whether splitting time between the two counties eliminates the deputy's full-time status (usually necessary for receiving full county benefits) in the original county of employment. Also, in anticipation of any emergency, the counties would probably need to hash out who has priority over calling in the deputy. All of which sounds like the makings of a mutual aid law enforcement interlocal agreement (particularly to explicitly spell out and address liability concerns), but that would require the commissioners court to get involved, and the sheriffs may not want that to happen.

To get back to your question, I don't see a legal problem; I see an accounting problem.

Here's an AG opinion that deals with some of the issues. As Scott says, you've got a practical/accounting problem, not a legal problem.

http://www.oag.state.tx.us/opinions/op50abbott/ga-0214.htm