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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Does a Texas city commissioner automatically resign by running for school board?
The Attorney General concluded that the office of trustee of a consolidated school district board is an 'office of profit or trust' under article XI, section 11 of the Texas Constitution. So a home-ru…
Can an employee of a private company that lives off a state contract still be paid as a Texas MUD board director?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Article XVI, section 40 of the Texas Constitution lets people who get all or part of their pay from state funds serve on local governing bodies like a municipal uti…
Can a Texas county commissioner also serve as a volunteer firefighter?
The Attorney General concluded yes, a county commissioner may serve as a volunteer firefighter for an unincorporated town in his county. Article XVI, section 40 of the Texas Constitution, which bars h…
Can a Texas district attorney also serve as a legal officer in the Air Force Reserve?
The Attorney General concluded that serving as a legal officer in the United States Air Force Reserve is not the 'private practice of law,' so it does not violate the Professional Prosecutors Act's ba…
Can a Texas school board member also teach as an unpaid volunteer in the same district?
The Attorney General concluded no. The common-law doctrine of incompatibility bars a school district trustee from also serving as a volunteer, part-time teacher in the same district, even without pay.…
Can the same person in Texas be both a city mayor and a director of a hospital district?
The Attorney General concluded no. Under the common-law doctrine of incompatibility, specifically its 'conflicting loyalties' branch, one individual could not at the same time serve as mayor of La Ver…
Can someone serve as an elected constable and a city firefighter at the same time in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that the common-law doctrine of incompatibility does not bar one person from simultaneously serving as an elected constable and a municipal firefighter. The constitution…
Can a city council member be appointed to a separate government board by their own council?
The Attorney General concluded that the common-law doctrine of incompatibility bars an officer who holds appointing power from appointing himself to another office, so a San Antonio city council membe…
Can an elected college trustee also serve as a city municipal judge?
The Attorney General concluded that an elected junior college trustee may serve at the same time as a city municipal judge. The trustee post is unpaid, so it is not an 'office of emolument' that the c…
Can a volunteer firefighter also serve on the city council in Texas?
Not in Gilmer's case. The Attorney General concluded that a member of the Gilmer Volunteer Fire Department could not also serve on the city council, because the city charter put the fire department un…
Can a Texas municipal judge also serve as a director of the Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Authority?
Generally no. The Attorney General concluded that the Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Authority is not a soil and water conservation district, so its directors do not fall within the only exception to artic…
Can a Texas school teacher also be a paid county commissioner?
The Attorney General concluded yes. A public school teacher or administrator may hold the office of county commissioner at the same time and keep the salary that comes with the commissioner position, …
Can a Texas county attorney also work as a city attorney for a city in the county?
The Attorney General concluded that the Brewster County Attorney could simultaneously serve as an attorney for the City of Alpine. Because he was appointed by and served at the will of the city counci…
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 one person be a municipal judge in two Texas cities at the same time?
A district attorney asked the Attorney General whether one person could serve as a municipal judge in more than one Texas jurisdiction at the same time. The Attorney General concluded that a paid muni…
Can the same person serve as a county commissioner and a school board trustee in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that one person could not hold both offices at the same time: county commissioner and public school district trustee were legally incompatible. Under the common-law inco…
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…
Can off-duty Texas police officers work school security as a side job?
The Attorney General concluded that article XVI, section 40 of the Texas Constitution, which bars one person from holding two 'civil offices of emolument,' does not as a matter of law stop off-duty ci…
Can the same person be a county deputy constable and an assistant fire chief at the City of Houston at the same time in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Neither the Texas Constitution's ban on holding two civil offices of emolument (article XVI, section 40) nor the common-law doctrine of incompatibility blocks one p…
Can a Texas school board member also serve on a county education board, teach elsewhere, or work for a legislator?
Yes to all three. The Attorney General concluded that a school district trustee may serve on the board of the county education district his district belongs to, may teach in a different school distric…
Can a Texas Supreme Court justice also serve on a federal board like the State Justice Institute?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the Texas Constitution's dual office holding ban (article XVI, section 12) prevents a justice of the Supreme Court of Texas from serving on the Board of Directo…
Can someone serve on a Texas river authority board and a county appraisal district board at the same time?
Yes, at least for this river authority. The Attorney General concluded that a director of the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority may also serve on a county appraisal district board. The Texas Constituti…
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 mayor keep her city salary while working as an independent contractor for a nonprofit that receives state funding?
A Nueces County attorney asked whether the mayor of Corpus Christi, who worked as an independent contractor for a private corporation serving people with disabilities that received some of its revenue…
If the governor appoints a judge during a legislative recess and the Senate never votes on it, does the judge stay in office?
A state senator asked about a district judge Governor Clements appointed during a Senate recess, whose name was never submitted to the Senate during the special session that followed, after which the …
Can a county tax assessor-collector also serve on the board of directors of the local appraisal district?
A Hunt County attorney asked whether an independent school district could contract with the county to collect its taxes when the county tax assessor-collector also sat on the board of directors of the…
Can the same person be both mayor and city manager of a Texas home rule city?
Yes, if the city charter specifically allows it. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that a home rule city can use its charter to overcome the common-law doctrine of incompatibility, w…
Can one person hold two county jobs in Texas, like deputy tax collector and court reporter, at the same time?
Yes, in this case. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that one person could serve both as chief deputy to the Rockwall County tax assessor-collector and as the official court reporter…
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 Texas justice of the peace also work as a jailer for the county sheriff?
No. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that the common-law doctrine of incompatibility prevents one person from serving as both a justice of the peace and a jailer in the same county.…
Could a Texas school employee be paid as an election clerk, and could a county road worker also serve as a paid part-time police officer?
Yes to both questions on the facts presented. An off-duty school employee could be paid for clerking a constitutional amendment election, and a county road worker could also serve and receive pay as a…
Could a Texas legislator be paid by the highway department for serving as a special commissioner in an eminent-domain case?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that a one-case appointment as a condemnation special commissioner was neither another office or position of profit nor a prohibited state contract, although separa…
Can one person serve at the same time as a Texas justice of the peace and a part-time appointed municipal judge for a city in the same precinct?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that concurrent criminal jurisdiction did not make the two offices incompatible because the judge did not control where a complaint was filed and the offices' legal…
Could one Texas county pay another county's sitting county attorney extra compensation for serving as a special prosecutor?
No. Because a county attorney was an 'attorney for the state,' article 2.07(b) made the special-prosecutor work an additional duty of the existing office without additional compensation.
Could one person serve both as an Angelina and Neches River Authority director and a member of Lufkin's planning and zoning commission?
Not if the river-authority director performed services carrying statutory compensation. Both positions were civil offices of emolument, and article XVI, section 40 barred one person from holding both …
Could one person serve at the same time as a school-board trustee and a city council member inside the same school district?
No, on the overlapping Socorro facts. The common-law incompatibility doctrine barred simultaneous service because the city council had supervisory powers affecting school property and trustee duties.
Could a Texas county judge also serve as a paid director of a river authority?
No. JM-594 concluded that both positions were civil offices of emolument, so article XVI, section 40 barred one person from holding them at the same time; qualifying as county judge vacated the river-…
Can a Texas DPS officer serve on a school board, city council, or other local governing body?
JM-588 concluded that a commissioned DPS officer could not hold a second paid civil office and could not campaign for or hold a partisan local office. Article XVI, section 40 did not by itself bar an …
Could one person serve at the same time as a Texas constable and a school board trustee?
JM-519 said yes in 1986: neither the two-office compensation ban, separation of powers, nor common-law incompatibility barred the combination. The official Texas AG page now marks JM-519 overruled to …
Could one person serve as chief appraiser for three Texas appraisal districts and also collect taxes for three school districts and a water district?
Yes, under JM-499's 1986 analysis. The opinion concluded that both positions were public employments rather than civil offices of emolument, so article XVI, section 40 did not prohibit holding all sev…
Could the same person serve as both a Texas county constable and a county jailer?
Yes, as a matter of law under JM-485. A constable held a civil office, but a jailer working under the sheriff's control did not, and the two positions were not inherently incompatible, although partic…
Could a Texas veterans county service officer also serve as a paid city council member?
Yes. JM-480 concluded that the veterans service officer was a county employee performing ministerial assistance, not a civil officer, so the constitutional dual-office ban did not prevent simultaneous…
Can one person in Texas be both a constable and a city police chief, or both a justice of the peace and a city judge?
No. The Texas AG concluded both office pairs are legally incompatible, so taking the second office automatically vacates the first. A constable who becomes police chief loses the constable office, but…
Were members of the State Property Tax Board entitled to the $30 compensatory per diem provided for state board and commission members in the appropriations act?
No. JM-349 said the Tax Code specifically prohibited compensation for Board service and allowed only reimbursement of actual necessary travel expenses. The general per-diem statute did not override th…
Could the Alice municipal judge keep serving after becoming Jim Wells County auditor if the judge refused the municipal salary?
No. JM-333 concluded that both positions were civil offices of emolument, so accepting and qualifying as county auditor vacated the municipal judgeship, and refusing its salary did not change that res…
Could a Texas county court at law judge also serve as a trustee of an independent school district?
No. JM-213 concluded that the no-emolument rule did not bar the two posts, but the statute enforcing the Code of Judicial Conduct barred a county court at law judge from serving as a school trustee.
Could Texas school trustees, college regents, teachers, and education employees serve on the transitional State Board of Education?
JM-203 said school trustees, junior college trustees, certain college regents, and employees directly subordinate or accountable to the State Board were barred by common-law incompatibility. Most list…
Could city officials or electric-cooperative officers serve on the Lower Colorado River Authority board?
JM-172 said recent officers and employees of wholesale electric cooperatives were statutorily ineligible for LCRA appointment. City officials and employees were not barred by that statute, but accepti…
Could a Texas county commissioner also serve as a gubernatorial appointee on the Texas Sesquicentennial Commission?
Yes. JM-141 found no separation-of-powers bar, no prohibited second civil office of emolument, and no common-law incompatibility between the two positions.
Could one person simultaneously serve as Galveston County auditor and a Galveston city council member?
No. JM-133 found the offices incompatible because the auditor could control or review county financial actions involving the city, and accepting the auditor position automatically vacated the council …
Could a Dallas County Community College trustee simultaneously serve as a Dallas County commissioner?
No. JM-129 found the offices incompatible because county and college interests could conflict over tax collection, roads, and other matters within their coterminous boundaries.
Could a Texas public-school teacher paid through a federal program also receive a salary as a city council member?
No. JM-118 concluded that the teachers received part of their compensation indirectly from state funds, so article XVI, section 40 allowed city-council service only without a council salary.
Could one person serve at the same time on the Texas higher-education Coordinating Board and a junior college board?
No. JM-97 concluded that the offices were incompatible because the statewide Coordinating Board supervised critical parts of junior-college administration. Accepting one office relinquished the other.
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…
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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.