Six Fort Bend County district judges rejected a compromise that would have preserved three associate judge positions set to lose funding Jan. 1, 2027.
The judges told commissioners to stay in their lane, arguing the county judiciary is a co-equal branch of government, not a department of Commissioners Court. Missouri City and Stafford residents with pending cases in Fort Bend district courts could face longer waits as a result.
The dispute centers on three associate judge positions eliminated from the county budget. Commissioners Court adopted the budget on Thursday, Sept. 10 without funding for those roles. County Judge Daniel Wong, Commissioner Vincent Morales and Commissioner Andy Meyers voted 3-0 to approve it. Commissioners Grady Prestage and Dexter McCoy abstained.
Wong and District Judge Christian Becerra, the local administrative judge, had reached a tentative deal to keep the positions for another year while courts worked to meet performance benchmarks. Results would have been reviewed during next year's budget talks.
Six judges killed that deal.
Monica Rawlins, Surendran K. Pattel, Kali Morgan, Oscar Telfair, Maggie Jaramillo and Steve Rogers rejected the compromise in a written opinion submitted to the Fort Bend Independent.
"Becerra was only speaking for Judge Becerra," District Judge Rawlins said. "The Judiciary is an independent branch and does not answer to Commissioner's Court. All judges are in support of keeping all Associate Judges."
Becerra did not join the six dissenters. Neither did District Judges Ed Krenek, Rick Bell or Mark Hanna.
In their statement, the six judges wrote that fiscal responsibility does not justify starving a co-equal branch of government of the resources it needs to do its job. They cited the Texas Supreme Court's ruling in Vondy v. Commissioners Court of Uvalde County, which held that a commissioners court cannot effectively nullify a constitutional office by refusing to provide meaningful compensation.
What changes for residents
Two of the three associate judge positions were originally created as temporary roles funded by federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to clear a COVID-era case backlog. Federal funding ran out in September 2024, after which the county continued paying for the positions with local tax revenue, according to Meyers.
Fort Bend is simultaneously adding the 501st and 502nd district courts, increasing elected district judges from eight to 10. Those two new judges are state-funded. Meyers said eliminating the three associate positions would save taxpayers almost $1 million a year.
Under Texas Office of Court Administration (OCA) methodology, an associate judge counts as 0.75 of a full-time judicial position. Cutting three removes 2.25 full-time equivalents. Adding two elected judges adds 2.0. Net loss: a quarter of one position.
State Rep. Matt Morgan wrote in a letter to Commissioners Court that reducing associate judges from eight to five was an important part of discussions surrounding his support for the legislation creating the new courts.
District Judge Kali Morgan warned at the Aug. 27 Commissioners Court meeting that family courts already had about 7,000 pending cases as of July 31, Community Impact reported. "You're going to be causing unreasonable delays," she said at the time.
A 2024 OCA workload analysis found Fort Bend had 2.57 more full-time equivalent judicial positions than needed to handle its caseload. Comparable counties disposed of significantly more cases per judge: Collin County handled about 54% more per judge than Fort Bend, and Denton County about 31% more, according to OCA data covering September 2024 through August 2025.
Commissioners Court next meets Thursday, Sept. 24.
