The Fort Bend Commissioners Court may hire an outside law firm of its own choice to assist it in fulfilling its redistricting duties without usurping the Fort Bend County Attorney’s statutory duties and the County Attorney may not unilaterally contract with an outside law firm of her choice to assist the Commissioners Court in carrying out its redistricting duties, the Texas Attorney-General has said in his opinion released Wednesday, Nov. 19.
A disagreement arose between the Commissioners Court and the County Attorney regarding whether the former has “the authority to choose the firm that would assist with redrawing the precincts” and the disagreement stemmed from the County Attorney’s assertion that her office has exclusive authority to advise, or select the law firm to advise the Commissioners Court with redistricting county election precincts.
The AG’s opinion committee issued the opinion in response to a referral made by State Rep. Gary Gates recently…