A Harris County resident is urging Treasurer Carla Wyatt to resign and has filed a petition seeking her removal, citing her repeated encounters with law enforcement.
Resident Luis La Rotta, who ran for Texas House District 148 in 2020, said during a Friday news conference at the Harris County Republican Party headquarters that Wyatt was not fit for office after a series of arrests.
“When I think of people who serve in public office, I think of integrity, moral character and transparency are the values we must hold them accounted when it concerns with their duties,” La Rotta said Friday morning. “As a lifelong Houstonian, the remarkable lack of personal accountability, judgement and discernment from the Harris County treasurer profoundly disturbed me. That’s why I’m calling for the removal from Wyatt.”
A representative for Wyatt said her office had no comment.
La Rotta’s lawyer, Andy Taylor, said the petition cites statutory grounds for Wyatt’s removal, including intoxication.
“This is not a situation where somebody had an occasional social drink one time,” Taylor said. “This is somebody who has now been brought to the criminal authorities and accused of drinking to excess and then driving while intoxicated.”
Taylor also criticized Wyatt over her office’s approval of two allegedly fraudulent payments totaling nearly $53,000, despite the county’s alert system flagging the checks as problematic.
Because a Harris County district judge cannot preside over the removal proceedings, Taylor said a district judge from outside the county will be assigned to decide whether Wyatt should be removed.