Continued taxpayer-funded salary and benefits payments to a convicted, incarcerated elected official?

Tyler, Texas | September 5, 2025 – Today, statewide conservative citizen action committee Grassroots America – We the People (based in Smith County, TX) released its Thursday, September 4^th letter to District Attorney Jacob Putman, Smith County Judge Neal Franklin, Commissioners Christina Drewry, John Moore, J. Scott Herod, and Ralph Carraway, Sr. requesting the immediate scheduling an official review of a Texas Supreme Court ruling as it relates to continued taxpayer-funded salary and benefits payments to a convicted, incarcerated elected official. The referenced SCOTX ruling addresses a three-part “test” to determine whether or not such payments are deemed “gratuitous” and therefore prohibited by law.

Article III, section 52(a) of the Texas Constitution prohibits the gratuitous payment of public funds for a private purpose. Grassroots America contends that continued taxpayer-funded salary and benefits for an elected official who is not working due to incarceration strongly appears to violate this provision.

Grassroots America’s Executive Director (and former Smith County Commissioner) JoAnn Fleming said, “The determination of whether or not a public expenditure to a convicted,  incarcerated elected official fits the definition of “gratuitous” belongs to the Smith County Commissioners Court – as the elected governing body of Smith County, Texas. This is not a decision that can be unilaterally made by one member of the Commissioners Court, the County Judge, and/ or the Human Resources Director.”

Fleming continued, “It is our understanding that the convicted Smith County Clerk chose jail time over probation, which removed all possibility of her being present to conduct the official statutory duties of the Office of Smith County Clerk; therefore, the public is clearly denied any “benefit” from her taxpayer-funded compensation.”

Fleming concluded, “The fact that the county clerk’s sentenced jail time is thirty days is immaterial – especially since Smith County taxpayers have assumed the entire cost of the investigation, her prosecution, trial, and jail housing.”