Texas Attorney General Opinion: LO97-064 Page: 1 of 2
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@ffice of the fttornep 4enerat
State of exas
DAN MORALES
ATTORNEY GENERAL July 7, 1997
The Honorable Jos6 R. Rodriguez Letter Opinion No. 97-064
El Paso County Attorney
County Courthouse Re: Removal of persons appointed to county pur-
500 East San Antonio, Room 203 chasing board and related questions (ID# 39418)
El Paso, Texas 79901
Dear Mr. Rodriguez:
You ask what is the term of office for members of a county purchasing board, the procedure
for removing a county commissioner from a position on that board (the "board"), and the procedure
for abolishing the position of county purchasing agent. We believe that there is no term for a seat
on a county purchasing board, the remaining county commissioners may simply remove one of their
members from sitting on the board, and the board may abolish the position of county purchasing
agent by voting to do so.
Section 262.011 of the Local Government Code establishes a purchasing board in all
counties, which board may appoint a suitable person to act as the county purchasing agent. In
counties with a population greater than 150,000, such as El Paso, ' the board is composed of three
district court judges and two members of the commissioners court. The commissioners court selects
commissioners to sit on the board by simple majority vote. The statute provides neither terms for
the members of the board nor procedures for the removal or change of the commissioners court
representatives who sit on the board.
We first must decide whether the positions on the board constitute offices. The statute
plainly makes the duties of the board ex-officio duties of the offices that the members already hold.
See Attorney General Opinion M-305 (1968) at 2. The positions on the board are not offices.
Therefore, specific removal provisions for county officers do not apply, nor does the term limitation
provision of the constitution apply. See Tex. Const. arts. V, 24 (removal of county officers), XVI,
30(a) (term limitation); ch. 87 Local Gov't Code (removal of county officers).
Because the board members do not hold offices in that capacity, they may be removed from
the board by the power that appointed them. Aldine Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Standley, 280 S.W.2d 578,
586 (Tex. 1955). Therefore, we believe that the commissioners court, which appointed the commis-
'See Bureau of the Census, U.S. Dep't of Commerce, 1990 Census of Population: General Characteristics:
Texas 2 (1992) (population 591,610).
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: LO97-064, text, July 7, 1997; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth277247/m1/1/?q=%221997~%22&rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.