Texas Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Texas, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Can a Texas police chief approve a job transfer for his own son or nephew?
Not if the approval involves any discretion. The Attorney General concluded that section 573.062(b) of the Government Code bars a public official from participating in any employment action affecting …
Who is disqualified from serving on a Texas county appraisal review board?
The Attorney General concluded the El Paso board member was ineligible to serve. The decisive point was that, when he was appointed, he was acting as paid legal counsel to the appraisal district, whic…
Can a city council member keep a tax abatement on property they own?
The Attorney General concluded that the Tax Abatement Act does not stop a property owner from being elected to the city council that granted the abatement, but section 312.204(d) of the Tax Code makes…
Can a Texas county judge act as a surety on a bail bond in the county where he serves?
The Attorney General concluded that a county judge may not act as a surety on a bail bond in the county where he presides. A bail bond is a contract to which the county is a party and in which the sur…
Can a Texas county road commissioner buy county auto parts from a company he owns?
No. The Attorney General concluded that under Transportation Code sections 252.005 and 252.006, a county commissioner acting as precinct road commissioner could not purchase, or authorize precinct emp…
Can the Texas fire commission hire someone whose spouse leads a firefighters' association?
The Attorney General concluded that, on the facts given, yes. Section 419.006 of the Government Code bars the Commission on Fire Protection from putting an officer, employee, or paid consultant of a T…
Does a Texas official's child's income count as the official's income for conflict-of-interest rules?
The Attorney General concluded that a minor child's or dependent child's earnings are the child's own gross income, not the parent official's. Family Code provisions giving parents control over a mino…
Can a Texas county commissioner be paid to drive an ambulance for the county EMS department?
The Attorney General concluded no. Section 81.002 of the Local Government Code, the oath every county commissioner takes, forbids a commissioner from having any interest, direct or indirect, in a cont…
Can a Texas county judge who is also a lawyer practice law in his own county's courts?
The Attorney General concluded that Government Code section 82.064 bars a county judge who is licensed to practice law from appearing as an attorney in any county or justice court over which his court…
Can a housing authority employee buy a home through the authority's affordable housing program?
The Attorney General concluded no. Section 392.043 of the Local Government Code's Housing Authorities Law bars a housing authority employee from owning or acquiring an interest in a housing project. T…
Can a county commissioner's company sell materials to the county in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that chapter 171 of the Local Government Code lets a county do business with a company a commissioner owns, to the same extent as other local governments, and that the o…
Can a married couple both hold local elected office in Texas if their districts overlap?
Yes, on the facts presented. The Attorney General found no conflict of interest that would disqualify either spouse from office. Texas's local conflict-of-interest law (chapter 171 of the Local Govern…
Is it a conflict of interest for a county commissioner to run a company that wins a contract from a community center the county helped create?
The Attorney General concluded there is no conflict of interest where a person serves at the same time as a county commissioner and as a manager of a corporation that contracts with a community center…
What counts as a 'significant interest' that blocks a Texas school board from contracting with a trustee's business?
The Attorney General concluded that the Legislature did not define 'significant interest' in the 1993 statute (Education Code section 23.201) barring a school board from contracting with a business in…
Can a former Texas utility regulator go to work for a company the PUC regulates?
The Attorney General concluded that the Public Utility Regulatory Act's one-year revolving-door ban (section 6(i) of article 1446c) kept a former PUC employee from being hired by a public utility he h…
Does having lobbyists at your firm disqualify you from serving on a Texas state commission with a lobbyist conflict-of-interest rule?
The Attorney General concluded no. Under section 2.061(d) of the General Services Act, a person who is a member of a firm could still serve as a commissioner of the General Services Commission even if…
Can a city council member vote on zoning that affects their own neighborhood?
The Attorney General concluded that, in certain circumstances, chapter 171 of the Local Government Code requires a home rule city council member to abstain from voting on a zoning matter affecting ter…
Can a Texas court reporter sign an exclusive contract to handle all of one company's deposition reporting?
The Attorney General concluded that neither Texas statutes nor the Texas Supreme Court's certification rules prohibited a certified shorthand reporter from contracting with a company, often an insuran…
Does Texas nepotism law apply to relatives hired as independent contractors, not just employees?
On the two questions asked: a school board may hire a board member's second cousin, because a 1991 change to the nepotism law adopted the civil-law method of counting kinship, under which second cousi…
Can a Texas public official give a merit raise to a spouse who works at the same agency?
Not a discretionary merit raise. The Attorney General concluded that a Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation school superintendent violated the state nepotism law (article 5996a) by…
Can a state licensing board member also work for a company the board regulates?
Not in this case, the Attorney General concluded. The audiologist member of the Texas Board of Examiners in the Fitting and Dispensing of Hearing Aids was barred by statute from having a 'financial in…
Is it a conflict for a judge to rule on cases involving the county commissioners who set his pay?
The Attorney General concluded it was not a constitutional conflict of interest. The Government Code lets commissioners courts set the salaries of county court-at-law judges and, for certain counties,…
Can a Texas city council member also work for a school district, special district, or navigation district?
It depends on whether the second position is an office or just a job. In this 1990 opinion the Attorney General concluded that Article XVI, section 40 of the Texas Constitution (which bars holding mor…
Can a real estate agent who sits on an appraisal district's board sell a building to that same appraisal district?
It depends on the facts. The Attorney General concluded that if the board member was contractually the seller's agent only, there was no conflict-of-interest violation, but if the board member also ac…
Can two people who are first cousins both serve on the board of a Texas water district, or does a relationship rule disqualify them?
If the disqualification statute applies to their district, both are disqualified. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that section 50.026(a) of the Water Code, which bars a person from…
If I work for a Texas state agency, does stock I got through a former job's pension plan, or a relative's business stake, create a conflict of interest?
It depends on whose interest it is. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General advised the Department of Information Resources that stock an employee acquired in a former employer through a pension or …
Can a Texas county official do business with the county they serve if they follow the conflict-of-interest disclosure rules?
Yes, within limits. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that chapter 171 of the Local Government Code lets a commissioners court enter a contract or approve a claim in which the county…
Can a Texas school board borrow from its depository bank when a board member works for that bank?
Yes, but with disclosure. In this 1989 reconsideration of Opinion JM-583, the Attorney General concluded a school board may enter a loan contract with its depository bank even when a trustee is a stoc…
Can a city council member also chair the board of a nonprofit and still vote on city contracts with that nonprofit?
In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General said yes, on these facts. A Lubbock city councilman also served as chairman of the board of the Texas Tech University and Health Sciences Center Research Foun…
Can a lawyer who sits on a county appraisal district board also be hired to collect that area's delinquent property taxes?
Yes. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that an attorney who contracts to collect delinquent taxes for a taxing unit is an independent contractor, not an 'employee,' so he is not disq…
Can a Texas state agency refuse to sign service contracts with its own former employees or their spouses?
Yes, within reason. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation could adopt reasonable rules prohibiting its facilities from e…
Does a state agency's anti-conflict rule cover every organization it pays, or only ones set up primarily to do that kind of work?
In this 1988 opinion the Attorney General read the Texas Rehabilitation Commission's conflict-of-interest statute broadly. It reaches everyone associated with any organization that receives commission…
Can a Texas county commissioner post a bail bond, or pledge his property as a surety, for someone charged in his own county?
No. The Attorney General concluded a county commissioner may not act as a surety on a bail bond for a defendant charged in the commissioner's own county. A bail bond is a contract, and if the defendan…
Did San Marcos city council members employed by Southwest Texas State University have to abstain from voting on the university's street-abandonment request?
No, not under former article 988b as recodified in Local Government Code chapter 171. The Attorney General concluded that the state university was not a statutory business entity, although other confl…
Could a city council member with a substantial interest in a vendor vote to pay its bills or buy sole-source goods from it?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the member had to file an affidavit and abstain from both the vendor's periodic bill payments and a sole-source purchase. The only stated exception applied when…
Can a Texas CPS caseworker also be a foster parent for the same agency?
The 1987 opinion did not give a yes-or-no answer. It concluded that whether a Department of Human Services child protective services specialist could serve as a foster parent was a conflict-of-interes…
Can a Texas commissioners court appoint a county commissioner's relative to a vacant county office?
No. The 1987 opinion concluded that the nepotism statute, article 5996a, barred a commissioners court from appointing the first cousin of a sitting commissioner as acting county clerk. Neither the rel…
Could Texas barber-board members or inspectors take board exams, attend barber school, or work as part-time barber teachers?
A board member could not take a licensing or certification exam administered by the board, and a barber inspector could not work for pay as a barber-school teacher. An inspector's enrollment in a barb…
Could the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station contract with a corporation whose parent was half-owned by a Texas A&M regent, if the regent disclosed the interest and abstained?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that Texas A&M's Board of Regents could not approve the proposed research agreement because a regent had a pecuniary interest through the contracting corporatio…
Did the Harris County Attorney have to advise the sheriff's civil-service commission, and could that office also represent the sheriff before it?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that the Harris County Attorney had to give requested written advice to members of the Sheriff's Department Civil Service Commission about official duties and p…
Can an employee of one Texas county housing authority also work as a bookkeeper or consultant for another housing authority, or own a home in another authority's housing project?
No on both counts. JM-610 read section 6a of article 1269k as an unusually broad conflict-of-interest bar with no out-of-jurisdiction exception, so a housing authority employee cannot do bookkeeping o…
Can a community college board member who works at the district's bank vote on money decisions affecting that bank?
Yes. JM-583 concluded that the School Depository Act allowed a community college trustee tied to the district's depository bank to vote on routine expenditures that reduced the bank's deposits. JM-108…
If a member of a state advisory council stops meeting the qualifications, are they automatically removed from the board?
No. JM-578 concluded that a member of the Texas Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities who fails the federal membership qualifications is not automatically forced to resign, and cannot cure t…
Can a Texas school board lease district property for 50 years, and what happens if the lease is later assigned to a board member?
It depends on the facts, but the AG gave clear rules. JM-531 concluded that a school board has authority to lease district property as long as the lease does not impinge on the board's ability to run …
Could a Texas deputy sheriff own an auto garage that repaired county patrol vehicles during his off-duty hours?
Article 988b did not prohibit it because the deputy had no authority to vote on or make the county repair contract. JM-450 cautioned that county purchasing and competitive-bidding requirements could s…
Could a Texas school trustee avoid a conflict-of-interest violation by abstaining from the vote but still discussing the matter with the board?
No. The Attorney General concluded that participating in a board's 'vote or decision' included deliberating with other trustees, so a substantially interested trustee could not discuss the matter and …
Could a Texas county clerk own part of a title company and manage it part-time without creating a prohibited conflict of interest?
Yes, on the facts presented. JM-310 concluded that the clerk could hold and manage the interest because he would not act for the company in county business or make county contracting decisions, but he…
Could Texas require a public-housing tenant to serve on the local housing-authority board without creating an automatic conflict of interest?
Yes. JM-308 concluded that the Legislature could require a tenant commissioner and that living in an authority project was not an interest in a business entity under article 988b, so residency alone d…
Could the Texas human-resources agency stop child-protective workers from doing paid court-ordered custody studies after hours?
Yes, when the outside work created a conflict by competing with the department for court appointments and fees or otherwise harmed departmental operations. JM-188 said conflicts ordinarily required fa…
Could a Texas life insurer pay its wholly owned service subsidiary a fee based on net premiums?
Yes. JM-187 concluded that article 3.68 did not automatically bar a premium-based service fee paid to a wholly owned subsidiary, so long as the arrangement met the fairness, propriety, and reasonablen…
Could a higher-education-authority board member vote on student-loan matters benefiting a bank in which the member had a substantial interest?
No, when the member knowingly participated and could reasonably foresee interest income or another economic benefit to the bank. JM-178 also concluded that a higher education authority director was a …
Could a Giddings council member remain in office while serving as vice-president of a corporation that subcontracted on a city project?
JM-171 said the member did not automatically vacate office. But the city contract was void if the general contractor and the member's firm already had a subcontracting agreement when the city awarded …
Could a Texas county commissioner donate copyrighted court forms to his own county while marketing the same forms to other counties for personal profit?
No. JM-82 treated the accepted donation as a contract and concluded that the commissioner's planned use of Collin County as a sales showcase created an indirect interest prohibited by article 2364.
Can a Texas legislator take a part-time teaching job at a state university if private donated funds pay the salary?
Only as an unpaid volunteer. JM-32 concluded a House member may volunteer as a part-time instructor without violating the constitution's bar on holding another position of profit; it did not approve a…
Can a Texas city council choose a bank as its depository when most council members own stock in that bank?
No. JM-29 concluded a general law city council cannot enter a depository contract with a bank when a majority of council members are stockholders, because article 2529c bars stockholder-members from v…
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Attorney general opinions in Texas are written by the Texas Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.