We will modernize payments. Right now we have four full time cashiers that collect payments for the departments that haven’t modernized yet. We will work with the departments who don’t already collect payments to collect payments and provide an online payment portal for all of the county.
We will modernize accounting. We will create an appointed CPA position that can run the accounting for the county. This will allow us to actually lower the number of accounting clerks we hire.
We will modernize investing. Instead of trying to day trade with county funds we will set up a passive set it and forget it investment strategy that maximizes safety and returns within the bounds of state law. This will allow us to not hire full time staff dedicated to investing the county’s funds. After these three steps, we can eliminate the Treasurer’s office, save the taxpayers even more money, and let the commissioners hold the County CPA accountable.
The current Treasurer’s office has three main duties: • Collect money for the offices who don’t collect money for themselves • Do the bookkeeping for the county except for payroll, purchasing, procurement, and purchase card management (those functions are already done by the auditor) • Advise the Commissioners on the investment strategy for the county
Currently, we hire four full-time employees just to collect payments for the departments who don’t collect payments themselves. We could have those departments collect payments, collect payments online, or use payment kiosks for this job. Any of these solutions would save a minimum of three full time employee savings and benefits and does not require other departments’ consent. Currently we employ seven people to do the bookkeeping functions that still lie with the Treasurer’s Office. If we had an appointed CPA running the office, they could accomplish this with no more than three accounting clerks. Remember, the Treasurer doesn’t manage payroll or purchasing and they have both a CPA Auditor and an independent private auditing firm checking their books. An elected official is not qualified to make investment decisions for the county. As we have seen across the state, elected officials, including our own, try to buy into many investments to make it look like they are professionally managing the fund. That is one of the reasons why the state restricted the type of funds that counties can invest in with the Public Funds Investment Act. A professional would pick a passive index fund, put the county fund in it and leave the money alone, letting it grow.
An elected official is always going to be a burden on the County in this position. The County can’t require qualifications for the County Treasurer, can’t require him to publish transaction numbers, and can’t hold him to a standard of performance. If we eliminated that position, the commissioners could hold the appointed person to account and fire them if they don’t meet standards of transparency, accountability, and performance. An elected Treasurer only gets evaluated at election time every four years. These elections are often uncontested and always near the bottom of the ballot. It’s time we hold our county finances to a higher standard.
Yes, ten counties have eliminated their Treasurer’s Office. These counties have been large, medium, and small and most have had plenty of time to see the effects of the elimination. Tarrant County: Constitutional Amendment Passed: Nov. 2, 1982 Population: 2,230,708 Bee County: Constitutional Amendment Passed: Nov. 2, 1982 Population: 31,226 Bexar County: Constitutional Amendment Passed: Nov. 6, 1984 Population: 2,127,737 Collin County: Constitutional Amendment Passed: Nov. 6, 1984 Population: 1,254,658 Andrews County: Constitutional Amendment Passed: Nov. 5, 1985 Population: 18,923 El Paso County: Constitutional Amendment Passed: Nov. 5, 1985 Population: 875,784 Nueces County: Constitutional Amendment Passed: Nov. 3, 1987 Population: 353,125 Gregg County: Constitutional Amendment Passed: Nov. 3, 1987 Population: 126,679 Fayette County: Constitutional Amendment Passed: Nov. 3, 1987 Population: 25,488 Galveston County: Constitutional Amendment Passed: Nov. 7, 2023 Population: 367,407
No. No County Government has ever taken any legal steps to reinstate their Treasurer’s Office
This is a more difficult number to pinpoint. Galveston, a similar sized county to us (in population, budget size, and tax rate), saved $450,000 in the first year. Our estimate is an absolute minimum of $115,000 and as much as $750,000.
There are several differences. First let’s go over how it was easier for Galveston to save money. Galveston had more Auditors and already had a CFO position. This means they could move duties over to the Auditor’s office easier. In Bell County, though, our Auditor already does payroll, purchasing, and procurement as well as handling purchase card management. This means that less is handled by our Treasurer’s office even though they employ more people at a much higher budget. We also have centralized receipting which means all payments that the different departments collect go to one centralized bank account. This makes accounting and auditing much easier, explaining our already smaller Auditor’s office.
The Treasurer cannot legally check, or veto, an act by the Commissioner’s Court or the Auditor. The Auditor can refuse to sign an illegal check. The Treasurer cannot. The Auditor sets the spending limit for the Commissioner’s Budget. The Treasurer cannot. The Auditor has general oversight of all books and records. The Treasurer does not. The Treasurer legally must sign the checks that the county tells him to. Then the county is required to commission an outside audit from a private firm. This is another check on the process. Our county government has many checks on the financial process. The Treasurer is not one of them.