Hon. Claud Wolf 

County Auditor 

Howard County 

Big Spring, Texas 

Dear Sir: Opinion No. O-2684 

Re: County Auditors - 

Special Auditors 

Your request for opinion has been received and 

carefully considered by this department. We quote from 

your request as follows: 

"I will appreciate your opinion as to whether 

or not I would be permitted to serve as auditor for 

more than one county at the same time, provided the 

additional county should come under the provisiona 

of Art. 1646 - Vernons Civil Statutes of Texas." 

Article 16, Section 40 of our State Constitution, 

reads as follows: 

'No person shall hold or exercise, at the same time, 

more than one civil office of emolument, except that of 

justice of peace, county commissioner, notary public 

and postmaster, officer of the National Guard, the National Guard Reserve, and the Officers Reserve Corps 

of the United States, and enlisted men of the National 

Guard, the National Guard Reserve, and the Organized 

Reserves of the United States, and retlred officers of 

the United States Army, Navy; and Marine Corps, and 

retired warrant officers, and retired enlisted men of 

the United States Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, unless 

otherwise specially provided herein. Provided, that 

nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to 

prohibit an officer or enlisted man of the National 

Guard, and the National Guard Reserve, or an officer 

in the Officers Reserve Corps of the United States, 

or an enlisted mm in the Organized Reserves of the 

United States; or retired officers of the United States 

Arms, Navy, and Marine Corps, and retired warrant 
. - 

. . 

Bon. Claud Wolf, Page 2 (O-2684) 

officers, and retired enlisted men of the United States 

Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, from holding in conjunction with such office any other office or position of 

honor, trust or profit, under this State of the United 

States, or from voting at any Election; General, Special or Primary, in this State when otherwise qualified.‘! 

Article 1641, Vernon’s Annotated Texas Civil Statutes, reads as follows: 

“Any commissioners court, when In its judgment an 

imperative public necessity exists therefor, shall 

have authority to employ a disinterested, competent 

and expert public accountant to audit all or any part 

of the books, records, or accounts of the county; or 

of any district, county or precinct officers, agents 

or employees, including auditors of the counties, and 

all governmental units of the county, hoepitals, farms, 

and other institutions of the county kept and maintained 

at public expense, as well as for all matters relating 

to or affecting the fiscal affairs of the county. The 

resolution providing for such audit shall recite the 

reasons and necessity existing therefor such as that 

in the judgment of said court there exists official 

misconduct, will ful ommission or negligence in records 

and reports, misapplication, conversion or retention 

of public funds, failure in keeping accounts, making 

reports and accounting for public funds by any officer, 

agent or employee of the district, county or precinct, 

including depositories, hospitals, and other public institutions maintained for the public benefit, and at 

public expense; or that in the judgment of the court 

it is necessary that it have the information sought 

to enable it to determine and fix proper approprlation and expenditure of public moneys, and to ascertain 

and f-ix a just and proper tax levy. The said resolution may be presented in writing at any regular or 

called session of the commissioners’ Court, but shall 

lie over to the next regular term of said court, and 

shall be published in one issue of a newspaper of 

general circulation published in the county; provided 

if there be no such newspaper published in the county, 

then notice thereof shall be posted in three public 

places in said county, one of which shall be at the 

court house door, for at least ten days prior to Its 

adopt ion. At such next regular term said resolution 

shall be adopted by a majority vote of the four commissioners’ of the, ooulrt and approved by the county 

judge. Any contract entered into by said commissioners’ 
Hon. Claud Wolf, Page 3 (O-2684) 

court. for the audit provided herein shall be made in 

accordance with the statutes applicable to the letting 

of contracts by said court, payment for which may be 

made out of the public funds of the county in accordance with said statutes. The authority conferred on 

county auditors contained in this title as well as other 

provisions of statutes relating to district, county 

and precinct finances and accounts thereof shall be 

held subordinate Tao the powers givenherein to the 

commissioners1 court." 

Article 1645, Vernon's Annotated Texas Civil Statutes, reads In part as follows: 

"In any county having a population of thirtyfive thousand (35,000) inhabitants, or over, according to the preceding Federal Census, or having 

a tax valuation of Fifteen Million Dollars ($15,000,000), 

or over, according to the last approved tax rolls, 

there shall be biennially appointed an Auditor of 

Accounts and Finances, the title of said officer to be 

County Auditor, who shall hold his office for two (2) 

years, and who shall receive as compensation for his 

services One Hundred and Twenty-five Dollars ($125) 

for each million dollars, or major portion thereof 

on the assessed valuation, the annual salary to be computed from the last approved tax rolls; said annual 

salary from county funds shall not exceed Three Thousand, Six Hundred Dollars ($3,600). + + +.v 

utes, 

Article 1646, Vernon'sAnnotated Texas Civil Statreads as follows: 

"When the Commissioners' Court of a county, 

not mentioned and enumerated in the preceding 

Article shall determine that an auditor is a public necessity in the dispatch of the county business, and shall enter an order upon the Minutes 

of said Court fully setting out the reasons and 

necessity of an auditor, and shall cause said 

order to be certified to the District Judges having jurisdiction in the county, said Judges shall, 

if such reason be considered good and sufficient, 

appoint a County Auditor, as provided in the succeeding Article, who shall qualify and perform 

all the duties required of County Auditors by the 

Laws of this State; provided said Judge shall have 

the power to discontinue the office of such County 

Auditor at any time after the expiration of one 
Hon. Claud Wolf, Page 4 (O-2684) 

year when It Is clearly shown that such Auditor 

is not a public necessity and his services are 

not commensurate with his salary received; * * *.'I 

Article 1646a, Vernon's Annotated Texas Civil Statutes, reads as follows: 

')The colmnlssionersl court of any county under 

twenty-five thousand population according to the 

last United States census may make an arrangement 

or agreementwith one or more other counties whereby all counties, parties to the arrangement or 

agreement, may jointly employ and compensate a 

special auditor or auditors for the purposes specified in Articles 1645 and 1646. The county commissioners' court of every county affected by this 

article may have an audit made ofall the books of 

the county, or ang of them, at any time they may 

desire whether such arrangements can be made with 

other counties or not; provided the district judge 

or grand jury may order said audit if either so 

desires." 

This department held, in an opinion written by Hon. 

Bruce W. Bryant, First Assistant Attorney General, dated 

October 5, 1931, and recorded in Vol. 326, pp. 830-l-2-3-4, 

Letter Opinions of the Attorney General of Texas, that 

Article.l646a, Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, was a misnomer caused by an error in the codification of the Revised 

Civil Statutes of 1925 and that said Article should have 

been denominated as Article 1641a of the Revised Civil Statutes of Texas. This opinion held that county commissioners' 

courts of counties under 25,000 population, could, either 

alone or in conjunction with other counties having a population of less than 25,000 population, make an arrangement 

whereby they could jointly employ and compensate a special 

auditor or auditors for the purpose specified in Article 

-Revised Civil Statutes. The opinioa,~aiSa~he~d:'t~at 

such an auditor was a special auditor and was an entirely 

different type of auditor from-f a county auditor 

whose office was authorized under Articles 1645 and 1646, 

RevisedCivil Statutes and whose duties were prescribed 

in thsarticles following. This opinion also held that 

there was no statute which authorized two or more counties 

to jointly employ a county auditor. We think the above 

opinion is correct and we hereby approve same. We enclose 

herewith a copy of said opinion which contains a comprehensive discussion of the matters involved therein. 
Hon. Claud Wolf, Page 5 (O-2684) 

A county auditor is clearly a county officer. He 

takes an official oath and makes an official bond. 

A special auditor, as provided for in Article 1641, 

supra, clearly is not a county officer. 

Article 16, Section 40 of our State Constitution, 

would clearly prohibit a person from holding office as 

county auditor in two counties at the same time, just the 

same as it would prohibit a person from holding offlce as 

County Judge in two counties at the same time. 

However, Article 16, Section 40 of our State Constitution, would not apply to special auditors, who are not 

county officers. 

It is therefore the opinion of this department 

that a person may not legally hold office or serve as 

county auditor for more than one county at the same time. 

It is the further opinion of this department that 

county commissioners’ courts of counties under 25,000 popu-’ 

lation, could, either alone or in conjunction with other 

counties having a population of less than 25,000 population, 

make an arrangement whereby they could jointly employ and 

compensate a special auditor or auditors for the purpose 

specified in Article 1641,ernon’s Annotated Texas Civil 

Statutes. However, such a special auditor would not be a 

county auditor nor would he be a county officer. 

Very truly yours 

APPROVED SEP 9, 1940 

/s/ Gerald C. Mann 

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS 

ATTORNEX GENERAL OF TEXAS 

BY /s/ Urn J. Fanning 

Urn J. Fanning 

Assistant 

WmJF:ob:jl 

Encl. 

APPROVED 

OPINION 

COMMITTEE 

By BWR /s/ 

Chairman ,: