Honorable Roland Bogd 

County Attorney 

Collin County 

McKinney, Texas 

Dear Sir: Attention Mr. flwight Whitwell 

Opinion No. O-2332 

Ii e: Should fees of officers ba 

deposited with the county 

depository each day instead 

of every thirty days? 

Your recent .request for an opinion of this department on the above stated ouesticn has been received. 

Your letter reads, in part, as follows: 

"Our local county depository has made the 

contention that all fees of officers should be 

deposited with them as they are collected by the 

officer instead of the officer waiting until the 

end of each month and filing his report and making his remittance to the uounty Auditor whc ;Fn 

deposits the fees in the county depository. 

other words, the depository wants this money deposited with them each day instead of waiting 30 

days t 

"In this connecticn I call your ottenticn to 

Art. 3912E of the Civil Statutes, Subsection 5, 

which provides that it shculd be the duty cf all 

officers to charge and collect in the-manner authorized by law all fees and commissions which are 

permitted by law to be assessed and collected for 

all official service performed by them: as and when 

such fees are collected they shall be depcsited in 

the officers salary fund. In the same article, subsection 0, the statute says that officers receiving 

an annual salary as compensation for their services 
Honorable Roland Soyd, page 2 O-2332 

shall on or before the 5th day of each month 

file with the County Auditor on forms prescribed 

by him a detailed report of all fees collected 

by him during the proceeding month and shall 

forthwith pay into the officers’ salary fund for 

his office all fees collected by him during said 

month. 

“Also in Subsection P of the sune statute we 

find this language: lWhere any officer receives 

a srlary payable from the salary fund created for 

such officer, all fees, commissions and other 

compensation received by him in his official capacity shall be by him deposited and paid monthly 

or oftener into the salary fund created for such 

officer and such remittance shall be accompanied 

by his report thereof. 

“These last two above quoted provisions appear 

to apply only to counties in excess of 190,000 population as shown in Section 19 of the act. If our 

conclusion on that is corr.err,t then the only language applying to our county would be the language 

first quoted above from section 5 and this apparently couId be construed to mean that the officer would 

have to report and pay their fees each day. 

“Our officers have been filing the monthly report and remittance s 

E 

stemunder the supervision 

and direction of our ounty Auditor. We do not 

find any court decisions under this statute upon 

this question and are therefore unable to furnish 

l brief of the matter, but it occurs to us that in 

as much as the County depository is only entitled 

to have all county funds deposited with it that the 

question to be decidid is whether or not officers 

fees under the present salary set-up become county 

funds immediately upon being collected or whether 

they only become county funds at the end of a 30 

day period when the officer reports the collections 

to the auditor..” 

Sections 4 and 5 of article 3912e, Vernon’s Annotated 

Civil Statutes, reads as follows: 

“Sec. 4. In all counties of this State containing a population of less than on hundred and 

ninety thousand (190,000) inhabitants according to 

the last preceding Federal Census wherein the county 
Honcrable Roland hoyd, page 3 O-2332 

or precinct officers are compensated on a salary 

basis under the provieions of this act, there shall 

be created a fund to,be known as the ‘Officerat Salary Fund of County, Texas. ) Such fund shall 

be .Jcept soparnte and apart from all other county 

funds, and shnll be held and diajwrsed for the pur- 

:_- .pose of paying the salaries of officers and the salaries of deputies, assistants and clerks of officers 

who-are drawing a salary.from said fund under the 

provisions of tLir;ilr;Act, and to pay the authorized 

expenses of,thier offices. Such funds shall be deposited in the county depository and shall be protected to the same extend as other county funds. 

"Sec. .5. It shall be the duty of sll officers 

to charge and collect in the manner authorized by law 

all fees and commissions which are permitted by law 

to be assessed and collected for all official service 

_ performed by them. As and.when such fees are co lected 

_ they'.shall be deposited in the Officers~ Salary ~&d 

or funds provided in this Act. In event the k!ominiaaloners' Court finds that the failure to collect any 

fee or commission was due to neglect on the part of 

the officer charged with the responsibility of collecting same, the amount of such fee or commission 

ahrll, be deducted from the sa&ry of such officer. 

Before any such deduction is made, the Commissionerst 

Court shnll furnish such ofi'icer with an itemized - 

statement cf the un#Nected fees with which his account is to be char$edi and shall notify such officer 

of the time and qirce for a hearing cn same, to determine whether such officer wi$:,guil~jy"?fi,::~~~gli~ence, 

which time for he*fing shall be at leastten days 

subsequent to the dste of notice. Unless m officer 

is charged by lavv with the responsibility of collecting fees, the Commissioners' Court shall not in any 

event make any deductions from the authorized salary 

of such officer." 

The two provisions of Article 3912i, quoted above, 

apply to all counties containing a population of less than 

190,000 inhabitants according to the last preceding Federal 

census, wherein the county officers are compensated on a 

salary basis. Collin County has a population of 46,180 inhab'ftants according to the last preceding Federal census, and 

the county officials are compensated on an annual salary basis 

therefoae, the above quoted provisions would be appiic(LbWto 

said county. 

In view of the foregoing statutes, you are respect- 
Honorabla Roland fioyd, page 4 O-2332 

fully advised that it is the opinion of this department that 

when a county has selacted.&?@ounty depository in,the manner 

required by law, all moniss collected by various county of? 

ficials, should, as and when collected, be deposited in the 

variousfunds to which they,ri@#ul~ly belong, in the county 

depository. 

APPRPPDy l$U&O 1940 

ATTORNEY'GENERAL OF TEXAS 

APPROVED OPINION COMMITTEE 

BYBWF, CHAIRMAN