SAN ANTONIO – With a showdown shaping up between incumbent Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai and former San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, the county judge’s seat is in a spotlight it doesn’t normally hold.
So, what does the elected position do? Despite the title, the Bexar County judge is not a judicial role; it’s the head of the county government, who presides over the five-member Bexar County Commissioners Court.
“I think you could say, you’re mayor of the county, but in a much more different way,” said Nelson Wolff, who held the seat for more than two decades before stepping down at the end of 2022.
Wolff said the “complications” that come with the role are more difficult than dealing with a multitude of other elected officials, including the sheriff, district attorney, and local judges.
However, beyond simply managing those relationships, Wolff said the county judge and fellow commissioners have the “power of the purse.” Those other elected officials may have their own powers and authority, but they have to come through the commissioners’ court for their budgets.
“People can either be punished or rewarded depending on whether they do a good job or not. So you have to use those mechanisms to get things done,” Wolff said.
The county judge and commissioners also appoint the board of managers for the Bexar County Hospital District, as well as approve its budget, tax rate and bonds.
The county does not have the same ability to control land use or zoning as cities do, and it cannot create local ordinances.
But Wolff notes the power a county judge has to issue emergency orders, which can affect the more than 2 million residents in Bexar County.
“Certainly in COVID, I found that out with the emergency powers I had as county judge,” Wolff said. “I could do those 60 of them immediately without even going back to the commissioner’s court.”
While Wolff compared the position to a mayor, Heywood Sanders, a University of Texas at San Antonio professor emeritus of public administration, said there is a key difference.
“The county judge is the chief executive,” Sanders said. “He’s the boss.”
While a city like San Antonio has a city manager that runs its administrative apparatus, the county judge and commissioners can get more hands-on in the workings of county government. They also don’t have the same term limits as the San Antonio mayor and city council have.
“So a county judge has a great deal more opportunity to, if he or she chooses, to stay in office and deal with long-term projects that may take a while to come to fruition,” Sanders said.
Sanders also noted that Wolff expanded the role of what the county judge and county government do, pointing to the 2008 election to use the county’s venue tax for a host of projects around the city.
“The improvement of San Pedro Creek in the downtown area, for example, was an initiative of Nelson Wolff, and the county was the principal financier for the San Pedro Creek improvements,” Sanders said.
Wolff said he tried to ensure the county judge’s seat was not a “backseat role.”
“You shouldn’t be reactive. You should be progressive and out front. And you should, at that same time, while you’re doing that, work with the city and making sure you guys are getting along and that you’re pulling on the right project,” Wolff said.
Wolff has thrown his support behind Nirenberg for the upcoming 2026 election.
Sakai has received some early support from the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Bexar County, which announced its endorsement at a Monday afternoon news conference.
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