If the Commissioners Court were to hold someone in contempt, can any member of the Court make that determination? Does it require a majority vote? Can only the County Judge hold someone in contempt of Commissioners Court?

Also, can a member of the Court be held in contempt if the Judge, in his capacity as presiding officer, were to ask him to speak more politely to another county officer during a budget hearing?

Just wondering. I have not found anything that even seems to point me in the right direction on these questions.

It's not that kind of court.

If you're referring to contempt under Loc. Gov't Code sec. 81.023, it's like any other act of "the commissioners court"; that is, only the court as a body speaking through its minutes can act. Individual members cannot bind the court. Thus, if at least three of the other members are willing to vote against a member, I see nothing in the statute that would prevent an individual member of the court from being held in contempt under sec. 81.023.

Since I don't know of any directly applicable authority, however, I suspect the closest you'll get is the discussion of rules governing procedure for commissioners court meetings. The AG has said that, if the court wants Robert's Rules of Order to be the binding procedural scheme for its meetings, it must formally adopt them. Following from that reasoning, I think an assessment of contempt would be much more supportable if the court had adopted at least a resolution favoring civility and decorum in court meetings. Otherwise, it seems a bit ad hoc or arbitrary to support contempt. But I haven't really researched the question, so my opinion and $2.00 might get you a cup of joe at Starbucks.

If your commissioners court actually throws someone in jail, heaven forbid, the odds of them actually doing a writ-proof jail-time contempt are not good.

If you are on the advising end of this drama, advise them to leave it at the $25 fine set out in Local Government Code 81.023. On the other hand, if you are on the contempt end of this one, get your application for writ of habeas corpus ready to go because it's a good bet they won't dot all i's and cross all t's.

I do not say this because of any procedural problem specific to a commissioners court contempt; even excellent and experienced district courts have a tough time getting all the hoops in a contempt done in a writ-proof manner. [Family district courts do more contempts and therefore are generally more likely to do them correctly, in our experience.]

Consider also -- if they contempt and then jail one of their own members in the middle of a regular meeting, do they have a problem if they act in a way that prohibits an elected official from attending the remainder of the meeting the person was elected to attend?

Not that we don't have challenges, but reading this board helps me appreciate my own Commissioners Court.....

[This message was edited by A. Diamond on 08-01-07 at .]

Just my two cents, but I don't think one can be held in contempt of a presiding officer such as the county judge acting in a commissioners court meeting. The statute speaks to contempt of the commissioners court as whole, not the judge. The judge, chairing, can rule someone out of order and control the proceedings in accord with the rules of the body, but contempt is beyond that power.

You know, if you have to consider contempt to run a public meeting with elected officials, you got bigger problems than can be handled with such an awkward bit of enforcement. I would bet that any contempt action would generate far more trouble and expense than was created by the contemptible action in the first place.

Exactly, JB. High risk, low reward event...

Thankfully, I am on the advising end of this question, and thankfully the question is more academic than relating to a real issue. I agree that trying to hold someone in contempt of commissioners court is going to be an arduous and probably ugly process.

That pretty much describes what it is like in a court before any judge.