State AG Opinions
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Can a Mississippi city give a developer cheap surplus land for condos and count economic benefits as 'good and valuable consideration'?
The AG concluded that the City of Vicksburg could declare three parcels surplus and convey them to a developer under Section 57-7-1 for condominium development as commercial use. Non-monetary economic…
Can the Texas Appraiser Board let its licensed appraisers skip USPAP standards when doing a federal 'evaluation' instead of an appraisal?
The AG concluded the Board likely cannot. The Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board asked whether it could adopt a rule exempting appraisers it licenses or certifies under Occupations Code…
Can a Mississippi county lower its tax levy for the local junior college below last year's level?
The AG concluded that under Section 37-29-141, a Mississippi county is not permanently locked into 3 mills for junior college support and 3 mills for enlargement, but it cannot reduce its levy from on…
How long does the buyer at a Mississippi tax sale have to wait before getting the deed?
The AG concluded that under Section 27-45-3, the redemption period for a Mississippi tax sale is two years from the date of the sale, and a chancery clerk cannot issue a tax deed before that period ru…
Are Virginia's community policy management teams and family assessment teams required to include a parent representative?
Yes. The word 'shall' in Virginia Code §§ 2.2-5205 and 2.2-5207 makes a parent representative a mandatory member of every community policy and management team (CPMT) and family assessment and planning…
Can a Mississippi county pay an elected official 'leave with pay' under House Bill 1647, and when must constables be paid for state cases the prosecution loses?
The 2020 opinion concluded that elected officials like circuit clerks, chancery clerks, and constables were not 'employees' eligible for administrative leave with pay under House Bill 1647 (the 2020 e…
Can a Mississippi city hire a private company to take payments on the city's water and sewer bills?
The AG concluded that a Mississippi municipality may contract with a private business to bill and collect water and sewer fees under Sections 21-27-7 and 21-27-11. The AG declined to suggest specific …
What dollars count when the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer takes its 3% from a charter school?
The AG concluded that the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer's statutory 3% per-pupil allocation under Section 37-28-11 should be calculated on the same dollars that flow to the charter under Secti…
Can a Mississippi county pay 'hazard pay' to its employees for working through COVID?
The AG concluded that a Mississippi county could pay COVID hazard pay only if the incentive was contracted for before the services were performed, set by objective standards, and earned by personal se…
Can a Mississippi county pay rent for a district attorney's office that isn't in the courthouse?
The AG concluded that a Mississippi county Board of Supervisors could rent or fund the rental of office space for the district attorney if the Board determined the funding was necessary for the proper…
Does Delaware FOIA cover a city council president's decision to declare a colleague's seat forfeited and to lock him out of public meetings?
No. The AG ruled the City of Wilmington did not violate FOIA when its Council President sent a letter declaring a councilmember's seat forfeited for residency reasons and barred him from a virtual pub…
Does Delaware's open meetings law require a state agency to take live public comment at a virtual permit hearing if it lets the applicant give a live presentation?
No. The AG ruled DNREC did not violate FOIA when it ran two 2020 virtual permit hearings (Delaware City Refining and Croda) without live public comment, accepting only written comments. Permit hearing…
Does Mississippi's Fresh Start Act limit the Massage Therapy Board's ability to deny a license based on a criminal record?
The 2020 opinion concluded that the Mississippi Massage Therapy Board's specific licensing statutes qualified as 'applicable state law' that overrode the Fresh Start Act's general restrictions on usin…
If a Texas county leaves the Failure to Appear program, can it make DPS lift the driver license holds it requested?
No, not just because the county pulled out of the program. Under Transportation Code chapter 706 (the 'Failure to Appear Program'), a city or county can contract with the Department of Public Safety s…
Can a Texas home-rule city sign a contract promising never to try to decertify a utility district's service-area certificate?
Not necessarily, the AG concluded. Senator Brian Birdwell asked whether a home-rule city could agree by contract never to petition the Public Utility Commission to decertify all or part of a special u…
Can the City of Texarkana, Miller County, and the Texarkana Public Facilities Board jointly acquire an industrial site through an interlocal agreement?
Yes. The AG reviewed the Interlocal Economic Development Cooperation Agreement among the City of Texarkana, Miller County, and the Texarkana Public Facilities Board, found it met all of the Interlocal…
Which of the new misdemeanor crimes the Georgia legislature created in 2020 should require fingerprinting at arrest?
The AG designated all three reviewed 2020 misdemeanors as fingerprintable: improper sexual contact by a foster parent in the first degree under § 16-6-5.1(b.1) (Romeo-and-Juliet misdemeanor under § 16…
Can a property held in an LLC qualify for the Arkansas homestead property tax credit?
No to all three questions. An LLC is not a 'person' for purposes of Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-1122's definition of 'homestead.' Property held in an LLC does not qualify for the homestead property tax credi…
Can a Virginia police officer detain someone just to serve them with a protective order?
An officer cannot detain someone just to serve a civil protective order. The Fourth Amendment requires reasonable, articulable suspicion of criminal activity to support any detention, including one th…
Is Kentucky's 100-foot electioneering ban measured from the polling place door or from the end of the line of voters?
From the entrance. The Attorney General concluded that Kentucky's 100-foot electioneering ban in KRS 117.235(3)(a) is measured from the entrance to the polling place, not from wherever the line of wai…
Can a Delaware city add the name of a Board nominee to a meeting agenda only a few days before the vote, without explaining the late amendment?
No. Delaware FOIA requires agendas seven days in advance and amendments only up to six hours before with a stated reason for the delay. Rehoboth Beach amended the August 21, 2020 agenda to add the nom…
How fast does a Delaware city have to respond to a FOIA request, and does showing me the file once cover all my future requests for records in that file?
Delaware FOIA requires a response within 15 business days. Rehoboth Beach violated FOIA by responding to two of Vivari's requests months late and by treating a February 2020 file review as a substitut…
Can a Minnesota city use city email accounts, the city's social media, or other public resources to push voters to vote one way on a ballot question, especially during a pandemic when in-person meetings are limited?
No, if any public funds are involved. The AG reaffirmed a long line of Minnesota AG opinions going back to 1927 that say public money may not be spent to advocate for one side of a ballot question. Th…
During the COVID-19 pandemic, did Arkansas's absentee-voting statute let voters cast absentee ballots solely because of the pandemic?
The AG declined to interpret the term, because Governor Asa Hutchinson's Executive Order 20-44 (August 7, 2020) and Executive Order 20-45 had already directed that voters who concluded attending the p…
Does a Texas county court at law judge's minimum salary include the longevity pay a district judge in the county receives?
Yes, the AG concluded. Montgomery County's auditor asked how to calculate the minimum salary of a county court at law judge with twelve or more years of accrued service under Government Code section 2…
When a county wants to use a privately built jail to hold its inmates, does Arkansas's competitive bidding law apply, and how long can the contract run?
AG Rutledge declined to issue a bottom-line yes/no because the answer turned on the specific contract. She did clarify that Arkansas procurement law (Ark. Code Ann. 19-11-801) excuses competitive bidd…
Can a Florida city ban the sale of vaping devices completely, or at least raise the legal sale age from 18 to 21?
A complete ban is preempted by section 775.082, Florida Statutes. But a Florida city can prohibit the sale of vaping devices to persons aged 18 to 20 (effectively setting a local age-21 minimum), as l…
Can a Delaware public body charge me for the staff time it takes to redact exempt information from records I requested?
No. The AG ruled the Wilmington Neighborhood Conservancy Land Bank violated FOIA when its $640 cost estimate included a charge for staff time spent reviewing whether portions of records were exempt. U…
Can a Texas school district sign a long-term ground lease letting a private company develop surplus school land for non-school uses?
The AG concluded that a Texas independent school district may lease its real property to a private entity under the common law, even for noneducational uses, as long as the lease does not interfere wi…
Can a Texas local government buy SBA Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans as an authorized public-funds investment?
Generally yes, the AG concluded, with two important qualifications. The Public Funds Investment Act lets covered Texas public entities invest in obligations that are unconditionally guaranteed or insu…
Does a Texas professional employer organization (PEO) need a money transmission license to pay its clients' employees?
No, the AG concluded. A professional employer organization, the kind of company that takes over payroll, taxes, benefits, and HR for a client business, is already licensed under chapter 91 of the Labo…
Are a Texas search warrant, its return, and the property inventory public records the district clerk must release during an open investigation?
The AG concluded that these documents are not covered by the Public Information Act, because a district clerk holds them on behalf of the judiciary, which the Act expressly excludes. Access is instead…
Does a public-trust redevelopment authority created by Arkansas counties and cities get the same tort immunity that political subdivisions enjoy under Ark. Code Ann. 21-9-301?
Yes to both. The AG concluded the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority Public Trust likely qualifies as a 'political subdivision' (or an extension of one) under Ark. Code Ann. 21-9-301, which gave it …
During the 2020 absentee-heavy election, could political party representatives or campaign 'challengers' attend meetings of Minnesota county and city absentee ballot boards to observe and challenge the acceptance of individual absentee ballots, the way they can challenge voters at polling places?
No. The AG concluded that Minnesota's election challenger statutes (Minn. Stat. §§ 204C.07, 204C.12, 204C.13, 201.195) by their terms apply only to polling places or to a separate contested-case proce…
Can a city refuse to hand over employees' unemployment insurance notices under Arkansas FOIA?
Yes for the two notices reviewed. AG Rutledge concluded the City of Little Rock's withholding of two 'Notice to Last Employer' and 'Notice to Base Period Employer' unemployment-insurance notices was c…
Can a county prohibit its employees from donating to candidates running for any county office?
No. Pima County's blanket ban on county employees making political contributions to candidates for any county office violates both the First Amendment and Arizona Constitution Article II, § 6. The cou…
Can a Delaware administrative board deliberate in private even when FOIA's open-meeting rules would otherwise require the public to watch?
Yes. The AG ruled the Environmental Appeals Board did not violate FOIA when it deliberated on a Delmarsh, LLC appeal in executive session, because 7 Del. C. § 6008(a) is a later-enacted, more specific…
Can a Kentucky domestic relations commissioner also serve as an elected city commissioner?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that serving as a domestic relations commissioner is not incompatible with holding the office of city commissioner. A domestic relations commissioner is treated lik…
During COVID, can a Mississippi school district close schools and keep paying employees who didn't work?
The AG concluded that the Cleveland School Board could close schools for the COVID-19 epidemic under Section 37-13-65 if it made the required factual findings, subject to the 180-day school-session ru…
Can a Delaware city refuse a FOIA request for police grant applications by saying the federal agency that received them is now the only proper custodian?
No. The AG ruled the City of Wilmington violated FOIA when it denied Jeanne Kuang's request for federal grant applications submitted by Wilmington Police, claiming the federal agency was the sole cust…
Can a Virginia political party hold a raffle to raise money, and if there's a gun as a prize, does the winner need a background check?
No. Virginia's charitable gaming law only allows raffles run by nonprofits chartered for religious, charitable, community, or educational purposes. A political party or campaign committee does not qua…
Does Arkansas FOIA let a city release police-officer audio and video recordings from a misconduct investigation, and what about a minor caught on tape?
Yes, generally. AG Rutledge concluded the City of Benton's custodian had properly classified most of the 16 records as evaluation records, that the four-prong evaluation-records release test was met, …
Is a federally licensed firearms dealer, manufacturer, or importer who repairs guns considered a 'federally licensed gunsmith' exempt from Washington's universal background check rule when receiving and returning a customer's firearm?
Yes, with limits. A person licensed as a 'dealer' under 18 U.S.C. § 923(a) is a federally licensed gunsmith when engaged in the business of repairing or modifying firearms. A licensed manufacturer or …
Can a Mississippi HOA charge a transfer fee when a homeowner sells the property?
The 2020 opinion confirmed that Mississippi's 2019 ban on private transfer fees in § 89-1-69 left a carve-out for HOA transfer fees: a property owners' association in a subdivision with more than one …
Can a Mississippi city let private organizations or the chamber of commerce use the municipal auditorium without paying a fee?
The 2020 opinion concluded that a Mississippi city did not have to charge fees to non-municipal users of a municipal auditorium, but had to recover any direct costs (utilities, cleaning) the city incu…
Can a Virginia city extend or pause the 5-day Virginia FOIA records deadline during the COVID-19 emergency?
No. Va. Code § 15.2-1413 (the continuity-of-government statute) does not give a locality power to modify or indefinitely extend the deadlines for responding to records requests under Va. Code § 2.2-37…
Can the Virginia Department of Taxation use a pro-rata formula (instead of cost-recovery) to figure out how much of a retiree's pension distribution is tax-free in Virginia?
Yes. The Virginia AG concluded that because § 58.1-322.02(11) is silent on the methodology, the Department of Taxation has discretion to use a pro-rata approach (drawn from IRC § 72) instead of Pennsy…
Can a city custodian withhold all employee leave and FMLA records as a privacy invasion before even pulling the records to look at them?
Partly. AG Rutledge agreed that leave and FMLA records were properly classified as personnel records, but concluded that withholding them based on the wording of the request alone (without first ident…
Can a Mississippi city forgive part of a cleanup assessment when the cost to clean up exceeds what the property is worth?
The AG concluded that cleanup assessments imposed under Section 21-19-11 are property liens that a Mississippi municipality cannot reduce, waive, or postpone, even when the cost exceeds the property's…
Can a former Arkansas police officer block release of his disciplinary file under FOIA when his old department wants to give it to a requester?
Mostly yes for the release. AG Rutledge concluded that the Benton Police Department custodian's decision to release one personnel record and four employee-evaluation letters was consistent with Arkans…
Can a Mississippi county board of supervisors shrink, dissolve, or audit the trustees running a county hospital?
The 2020 opinion concluded a Mississippi board of supervisors could (1) decline to fill an at-large hospital trustee vacancy, letting the trustee board operate with six members until it could shrink t…
Can a Mississippi county tax assessor send employees home with pay during COVID without the Board of Supervisors' approval?
The AG concluded that under Executive Order 1460 and H.B. 1647 (2020), only county boards of supervisors, municipal governing authorities, and local school boards could grant administrative leave with…
Can a Mississippi municipal court expunge a first-offense drug-related DUI?
The AG concluded that a Mississippi municipal court could expunge a first-offense drug-related DUI that had been nonadjudicated under Section 63-11-30(14), but could not expunge any DUI conviction. Co…
Can a Mississippi municipal court start its own veterans treatment court for misdemeanor cases?
The AG concluded that the Greenwood Municipal Court could not create a municipal veterans misdemeanor treatment court. Only the Mississippi Legislature can establish inferior courts, and the Legislatu…
Does the Texas Constitution's separation of powers apply to a city government and how it handles employee grievances?
No, the AG concluded, separation of powers does not apply to municipal government. The mayor of Glen Rose, a Type A general-law city, was concerned that the city council's role in hearing employee gri…
What does Virginia law say about voter intimidation and people carrying guns at polling places?
Virginia and federal law criminalize intimidation, threats, and other coercion at polling places. Brandishing a firearm to instill fear is a crime, courthouses and schools (often polling locations) ar…
What can California state board members do, and not do, outside an open meeting under the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act?
The AG drew three lines for FPPC commissioners. (1) A private lunch with a quorum to discuss how the Act applies to the Commission is itself a meeting and violates the Act. (2) An agenda whose general…
Can a Virginia school board adopt a policy that blocks board members from getting records the public could get under VFOIA?
In some cases, yes. A local school board policy that requires full-board endorsement before staff produces records to a board member conflicts with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act if the recor…
Can a Virginia school board member vote on a budget that affects their spouse's salary along with thousands of other school employees?
A budget decision that affects the salaries of thousands of school employees does not 'affect the public generally' just because it affects a large group. A board member married to one of those employ…
Can a Texas city require architectural control committee approval before issuing a building permit without violating HB 2439's building-materials law?
It depends on the facts, the AG concluded. House Bill 2439, codified at Government Code section 3000.002(a)(1), bars a governmental entity from adopting or enforcing a rule that directly or indirectly…
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