Texas Attorney General Opinion: LO97-077 Page: 3 of 4
This text is part of the collection entitled: Texas Attorney General Opinions and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.
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The Honorable Ben W. "Bud" Childers - Page 3 (L097-077)
serve a legitimate public purpose are permissible.6 On the other hand, expenditures that benefit a
public official or employee but do not serve a public purpose are impermissible.7
The commissioners court must make the initial determination whether a county expenditure
will directly accomplish a legitimate county purpose, subject, of course, to judicial review' for abuse
of discretion.' The County and District Clerk's Association of Texas is a private professional
association. Clerks are not required by law to belong to the association. It may be the case that
membership and participation in the association enhance a clerk's job performance, thus benefiting
the county, even though the clerk also receives an incidental personal benefit.'0 In determining
whether to expend county funds to support the campaign of a county official for an office in a private
professional association, however, a commissioners court must determine that the county would
directly benefit from the county official holding office in the association. In addition, a
commissioners court must also determine that the private benefit to the county official is only
incidental to the county purpose. Furthermore, we also believe that a commissioners court would
have to consider whether the county has any legitimate interest in influencing the internal politics
and governance of a private association.
6See, e.g., Attorney General Opinions DM-397 (1996) (judge may use public resources to conduct wedding
ceremonies because performance of weddings is an official function), JM-1063 (1989) (state agency not precluded from
paying professional fees of employees if agency determines that expenditures would be related to governmental
function), MW-251 (1980) (legislature may authorize state agency to spend public funds for employees' notary license
fees because expenditure related to performance of state's governmental function).
See, e.g., Attorney General Opinions DM-431 (1997) (county precluded as matter of law from paying county
sheriffs attorneys fees in defending election contest suit because election contests involve personal interests, not county
interests), JM-685 (1987) (school district has no authority to pay legal expenses of trustee in election contest because
no school district interest in the litigation), MW-89 (1979) (school district not authorized to grant teachers paid release
time to pursue business of professional organization because expenditure not tailored to accomplish school-related
purpose).
'See Attorney General Opinions DM-317 (1995) at 3, DM-256 (1993) at 2, JM-824 (1987) at 2-3.
9See Commissioners Court of Titus County v. Agan, 940 S.W.2d 77, 80 (Tex. 1997).
'0We note, for example, that the legislature appears to have determined that membership in "a nonprofit state
association of counties" serves a public purpose. See Local Gov't Code 81.026 (authorizing commissioners court to
spend county general funds for membership fees and dues of nonprofit state association of counties under certain
circumstances).
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: LO97-077, text, August 20, 1997; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth277259/m1/3/?q=%221997~%22: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.