Liberty County Commissioners Court was set to meet Wednesday to consider ratifying decisions made by the Liberty County Elections Commission on Tuesday regarding the employment of jailed Elections Administrator Klint Bush. However, the meeting was canceled Wednesday morning due to the fact that there was no action to ratify from the Elections Commission.
“When I drafted the language for today’s commissioners court meeting, I did not include the option of abolition. I only included the language necessary to ratify the decision of the Elections Commission. The Elections Commission didn’t take any action, so therefore there was nothing to ratify,” said County Attorney Matthew Poston.
Commissioners Court now has set another meeting for Monday to consider abolishing the elections administrator position altogether.
“This is one area where commissioners court has sole authority. They can do away with the entire position. If they do so, we may have to wait a whole two years before we can establish an elections administrator position again,” Poston said.
According to Poston, abolishing the elections administrator position would mean that the Elections Administration office and everyone employed there would be terminated. However, the County has already budgeted for those positions, so these employees would likely be redistributed elsewhere in County offices.
Eliminating the Elections Administration office would also mean that certain elections-related functions would be returned to the departments that once handled those tasks before the creation of the Elections Administration office in 2019. According to Poston, elections would be supervised by the County Clerk’s Office while the voter registrar aspect would be managed by the Tax Assessor-Collector’s Office.
“A number of folks in the County Clerk’s Office are still there from when that office managed the elections,” Poston said. “Those employees worked elections in the past.”
Another possibility is that Commissioners Court takes no action on Monday and waits to see if Bush is indicted in the coming weeks on two criminal charges pending against him. Both are related to when he was president of the Liberty County Housing Authority. If Bush is indicted by a Liberty County grand jury and his position is not abolished, Poston said either he or a member of the Elections Commission will call a meeting.
“I think that was one of the big developments the Elections Commission wanted to know before making a decision,” Poston said.
If Bush is no-billed by the grand jury, he could still be terminated if commissioners court lacks faith in his ability to perform his job.
More fallout in the Elections Administration Office came this week when one of the key employees was “automatically resigned” from his position due to the County learning that the employee also was serving as a precinct chair for the Republican Party, which Poston said is a violation.
For more information on Tuesday’s meeting, click here: