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 state board member have to recuse from votes when a close family member works for an entity with competing interests in the same project?
Yes. Under Government Code section 572.058, a Nueces River Authority board member whose brother-in-law is an executive at the City of Corpus Christi's water utility has a 'personal or private interest…
Can a member of the Texas Opioid Abatement Fund Council vote on grants to organizations they are connected to, or do they have to recuse or resign?
They disclose and recuse, they do not have to resign, and the grant is not automatically void. The AG concluded Government Code section 572.058 applies to the Council's grant awards, so a member with …
Can a Texas city hire a law firm that employs a relative of the city manager, and does anyone have to disclose the relationship?
Yes, the contract is allowed, but it triggers disclosure paperwork. The City of Petersburg used a law firm, and the city manager's son-in-law later joined that firm and did some city work. The Hale Co…
Can a Texas county commissioner also work as the general manager of a water authority?
Yes, on the facts presented. The Nueces County Attorney asked whether the common-law incompatibility doctrine or conflict-of-interest laws stop a county commissioner from also serving as general manag…
Does a county attorney have a nepotism or conflict-of-interest problem if a relative's law firm contracts with the county?
Not under the facts presented, the AG said. The Harris County Attorney explained that his father-in-law owns an interest in a law firm that has contracts with the county to collect delinquent receivab…
Can a county judge's brother run for sheriff in Texas?
Yes. The AG concluded that neither the state nepotism statute (Government Code chapter 573) nor the conflict-of-interest statute (Local Government Code chapter 171) bars a county judge's brother from …
Does a city council member have a conflict of interest voting on a county matter if their spouse is the county tax assessor-collector?
No. The Jefferson County Criminal District Attorney asked whether a city council member must recuse from a vote to waive interest on delinquent property taxes when the council member is married to the…
Can a Texas state board member receive a grant from a program their own agency administers?
No, the AG advised. The Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board asked whether a 2017 change to the state contracting law let one of its own board members receive $15,000 in financial assistance …
Do a city attorney and city administrator have to recuse themselves from a deal that affects their own nearby property?
Not on these facts, the AG advised. The City of Conroe's city attorney and city administrator negotiated a deal under which a landowner would donate part of a defunct golf course to the city for park …
Can a county attorney's employee serve on a water district board if the attorney represents that district?
The Jim Hogg County Attorney asked the AG whether section 49.052 of the Water Code disqualified one of his office employees, an investigator paid by the county, from serving on the board of a water co…
Do planning, zoning, or historic commission members have to recuse themselves when they own property in the district?
Representative Joe Deshotel asked the AG whether Beaumont planning and zoning commissioners, historic landmark commissioners, and a staff person who own or live on property in the city's historic dist…
Can a Texas public university contract with a company a regent has a financial stake in?
A state senator asked the AG to reconcile two Texas statutes that seemed to contradict each other on whether a public university could contract with a business in which a member of its governing board…
Does Texas nepotism law let a county hospital hire the county judge's spouse?
The AG concluded that Texas nepotism law does not bar the Pecos County Memorial Hospital from employing the county judge's spouse. The nepotism statute (Government Code section 573.041) only stops a p…
Can a Texas county pay legal fees for a commissioner investigated but never charged?
The AG concluded yes, a county can, subject to a public-interest test, but the investigated members cannot vote on it. Several Waller County commissioners were criminally investigated for possible Ope…
Can a juvenile probation officer also serve on or chair the school board that helps fund their department in Texas?
The AG concluded that one person could both work as a juvenile probation officer for the Fisher, Mitchell, and Nolan Counties Juvenile Department and serve as the presiding trustee of the Sweetwater I…
Can an ENT doctor who sells hearing aids serve on Texas's hearing-instrument examiners board?
It depends, and the opinion left the call to the board. Occupations Code subsection 402.053(d) bars the physician member of the State Committee of Examiners in the Fitting and Dispensing of Hearing In…
Can a registered lobbyist serve on the Texas State Board of Education?
It depends on what they lobby about. The Attorney General construed Education Code section 7.103(c) to bar from the State Board of Education only those registered lobbyists who were paid to communicat…
Can a Texas water conservation district transfer its assets to a private individual or company?
The Attorney General concluded that the board of the Sandy Land Underground Water Conservation District has broad statutory authority under Water Code section 36.158 to transfer assets, including its …
Can a Texarkana, Texas council member also be a paid firefighter across the line in Arkansas?
The Attorney General concluded that nothing in the two doctrines raised would generally bar a Texarkana, Texas city council member from also working as a paid firefighter for Texarkana, Arkansas. A ci…
Who issues the final decision in Texas motor vehicle dealer cases, the DMV Board or the division director?
The Attorney General answered three questions from the new Texas Department of Motor Vehicles Board. First, the Board issues the final order in contested cases under Occupations Code chapter 2301 (the…
Must a Texas county attorney represent the county ethics commission, or can it hire its own lawyer?
The Attorney General concluded that the El Paso County Attorney is required by Local Government Code section 161.061 to represent the El Paso County Ethics Commission in all legal matters, and that hi…
In a large Texas county, who chooses the outside lawyer for the county's lawsuits, the commissioners or the DA?
The Attorney General concluded that in Dallas County the line runs like this: the commissioners court decides whether to bring or defend a lawsuit, but Local Government Code section 89.001 makes the C…
Did two directors of a Texas water conservation district have to disclose their conflicts of interest and sit out a vote on a district rule that benefited them?
The Attorney General could not give a yes-or-no answer, because it turned on facts the opinion process cannot resolve. Chapter 171 of the Local Government Code requires a local official with a 'substa…
Does a Texas sheriff have a conflict of interest in accepting bail bonds if his stepson works for the bail bond company?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the conflict-of-interest provisions of Local Government Code section 171.004 do not apply to a sheriff's performance of his statutory bail-bond and forfeiture d…
Can a company be hired as a city's construction manager-at-risk if a related company is already the project's design engineer in Texas?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that neither subsection (c) nor subsection (d) of Local Government Code section 271.118 bars a company from being selected as a construction manager-at-risk on a mu…
Is it a conflict of interest for a district attorney to work in an office the county rents from the DA's own spouse?
Not under the facts presented. The Attorney General concluded that a district attorney's continued occupancy of county-leased office space in a building owned by the DA's spouse did not violate chapte…
Can an attorney give a school board free legal advice while being paid to collect the district's delinquent taxes?
The Attorney General gave a mixed answer. Because the attorney is an independent contractor, not a district officer or employee, serving both as an unpaid advisor to the board and as the paid delinque…
What gifts can a Texas state board member take from companies that might win a state contract?
The Attorney General read Government Code section 2054.022(a)(7) to bar a board member or the executive director of the Department of Information Resources from accepting money or anything of value, b…
Can a Texas county hire a company owned by one of its county commissioners?
It is not automatically barred. The Attorney General explained that Local Government Code section 81.002(a), the commissioners' oath, generally prohibits a county judge or commissioner from being dire…
Can a Texas justice of the peace who is a lawyer be appointed to represent criminal defendants on appeal?
No statute forbids it, the Attorney General concluded, but ethics rules may. A justice of the peace in Upshur County, who is a licensed attorney, asked to be put on the criminal appellate appointment …
Can a Texas county commissioner also be paid as an employee of the county sheriff's department?
No. The Attorney General concluded that Local Government Code section 81.002(a), which requires a county commissioner to swear not to be interested, directly or indirectly, in a contract with or claim…
Can a Texas school district use a 403(b) plan administrator owned by a company that sells investments to its employees?
It depends on the facts. Representative Vicki Truitt asked whether a Texas educational institution (a school district or open-enrollment charter school) violates article 6228a-5, section 9(a)(4)-(7) w…
Can a Texas county give a tax abatement to a company building on a commissioner's land?
The Sterling County Attorney asked whether the conflict-of-interest exclusion in Tax Code section 312.402(d) blocks the county from giving a wind turbine company a tax abatement when the company's tur…
Can a Texas city council member also serve on a local water supply corporation's board?
Senator Jeff Wentworth asked whether a member of the Village of Wimberley City Council, and the mayor, could serve at the same time on the board of directors of the Wimberley Water Supply Corporation.…
Can a Texas constable own a wrecker service that's on the sheriff's rotation list?
The Attorney General concluded that the conflict-of-interest provisions in chapter 171 of the Local Government Code do not prohibit a county constable from owning and operating a wrecker service that …
Can a Texas deputy district clerk also work part-time for a private law firm?
The Attorney General concluded that neither article XVI, section 40 of the Texas Constitution (which bars holding more than one civil office of emolument) nor the common-law incompatibility doctrine p…
Did Texas conflict-disclosure law require every local vendor, including professionals and small sellers, to file a questionnaire?
Under the law as it stood in 2006, vendors contracting or seeking to contract with a Texas local governmental entity generally had to file a conflict-of-interest questionnaire even when they had no re…
Can a Texas county auditor be removed for having a personal interest in a county contract?
The Attorney General concluded that a county auditor who has a personal interest in a county contract, contrary to the oath required by Local Government Code section 84.007(b)(2), may have committed '…
Can a Texas deputy sheriff also work as a septic-system installer in his own county?
A Kimble County deputy sheriff had been cited by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for working as an on-site sewage facility (septic system) installer in the same county, where the county …
Can a Texas county auditor also work as the accountant for a county emergency services district?
The San Jacinto County criminal district attorney asked whether the county auditor could also be hired as the accountant for the county's emergency services district (ESD), given the auditor's oversig…
Can a private association of public officials pay its outgoing president?
The Kerr County Attorney asked whether the $5,000 the County and District Clerks Association of Texas traditionally pays its outgoing president is an illegal honorarium or gift under the Penal Code, s…
If a board member develops a conflict of interest after a contract is signed, is the contract still valid?
The Texas A&M University System asked whether its pre-existing contract with a law firm became invalid after a person who joined the A&M Board of Regents then became a partner in that firm. The Attorn…
Can a Texas water district director who owns a real estate, development, or construction business have a conflict of interest?
The board of the Bandera County River Authority and Groundwater District asked whether directors who own (or whose close relatives own) real estate, property-development, or construction businesses ha…
If a board member has to abstain over a conflict of interest, can they still sit in on the closed meeting about it?
A state senator asked, in connection with a groundwater conservation district, how conflict-of-interest law and the Open Meetings Act apply to a water board whose member also ran a company seeking a p…
Can a Texas county judge who is also a lawyer get the county to waive the conflict of interest so he can practice law in his county's courts?
No. The Attorney General found no statute that lets the commissioners court consent, on the county's behalf, to a county judge practicing law in the justice, county, or district courts of his own coun…
Can a Texas city commissioner take part in discussing a merit raise for a sibling who works for the city?
The Attorney General concluded no. Under the continuous-employment part of the nepotism statute, a city commissioner whose sibling keeps a city job may not participate in any deliberation or vote on t…
Can a Texas school board trustee also serve on the board of a small groundwater conservation district?
The Attorney General concluded the trustee could not, on the facts described. The Water Code rule that disqualifies a member of one political subdivision's governing body from serving as a groundwater…
Can a Texas mayor serve as both a board member and the paid executive director of his city's industrial development corporation?
The Attorney General concluded there was no legal bar to a mayor serving simultaneously as a board member and salaried executive director of an industrial development corporation his city created unde…
Can a Texas county make contractors disclose their business ties to county officials?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Neither the County Purchasing Act (chapter 262 of the Local Government Code) nor the Professional Services Procurement Act expressly says a county may require this,…
Does the Texas ban on hiring former water-board members apply to a board created before the law passed?
The Attorney General concluded the statute did not reach the San Antonio Water System. In 2001, the Legislature added Local Government Code section 402.909, which bars a municipality (or its water-uti…
Can a Texas university use a bank as its depository if a regent works for that bank?
The Attorney General reaffirmed an earlier opinion (JC-0426) and held that Texas Woman's University could not use a bank as a depository when one of its regents was an officer and employee of that ban…
Can a Texas state board award a grant to one of its own members or to a university that employs a member?
No. The Attorney General concluded that a grant from the Texas Council on Environmental Technology is a contractual relationship governed by the strict common-law conflict-of-interest rule, which flat…
Can Texas pay Board for Evaluation of Interpreters members to evaluate interpreter candidates?
The Attorney General concluded no. The Board for Evaluation of Interpreters (BEI) has a statutory responsibility under Human Resources Code section 81.007 to evaluate and certify candidates for interp…
Can a Texas state university bank with a bank where one of its regents is an officer?
The Attorney General concluded no. Under the common-law conflict of interest rule, an officer or employee of a bank has a pecuniary interest in it, and when a regent of Texas Woman's University holds …
Do Texas charter school board members have to follow the state nepotism and conflict-of-interest laws?
The Attorney General concluded that the board members of a nonprofit corporation that runs an open-enrollment charter school, and the members of any separate board for the school itself, are not subje…
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 a Texas economic development corporation board approve funding for a business owned by one of its own members?
The Attorney General concluded it depended on the kind of transaction. The board of an economic development corporation may not approve a loan to one of its directors, because the Texas Non-Profit Cor…
Can a Texas city pay legal fees for council members prosecuted for Open Meetings Act violations?
The Attorney General concluded that a city council member is disqualified from voting on a resolution to pay his or her own legal fees, or the fees of another member indicted on the same facts for the…
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…
Must a hospital district board member who leads a labor council recuse from prevailing-wage votes?
No. The Attorney General concluded that chapter 171 of the Local Government Code, the local conflict-of-interest law, did not bar a Harris County Hospital District board member from voting on prevaili…
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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.