KEN PAXTON 

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS 

March 14, 2016 

The Honorable Joseph C. Pickett 

Chair, House Committee on Transportation 

Texas House of Representatives 

Post Office Box 2910 

Austin, Texas 78768 

Dear Representative Pickett: 

Opinion No. KP-0069 

Re: Whether a school district board of 

trustees may post on the district website the 

personal financial statements of board 

members submitted pursuant to section 

11.0641 of the Education Code 

(RQ-0053-KP) 

You ask whether a school district board of trustees may post on the district website the 

personal financial statements of board members submitted pursuant to section 11.0641 of the 

Education Code. 1 Section 11.0641 "applies only to the board of trustees of an independent school 

district that is located in a county that is located on the international border and in which a 

municipality with a population of 600,000 or more is located," i.e., El Paso County. TEX. EDUC. 

CODE§ 11.0641(a); see Fiscal Note, Tex. H.B. 343, 83d Leg., R.S. (2013) at 1 (stating that "[t]he 

bill is bracketed to apply to nine independent school districts (ISDs) within El Paso County"). 

Subsection (b) of the statute requires "[ e ]ach member of the board of trustees of an independent 

school district [to] file a financial statement with: (1) the board of trustees; and (2) the 

commissioners court of the county in which the school district's central administrative office is 

located." TEX. EDUC. CODE § l 1.064l(b). Under the statute, the commissioners court is to 

determine "whether a statement required to be filed under this section is late," in which case "the 

individual responsible for filing the statement is liable to the county for a civil penalty of $500" 

and, in aggravated circumstances, may. be the basis of a civil penalty of up to $10,000. Id. 

§ 11.0641(e). Moreover, a trustee who fails to file the required statement commits a Class B 

misdemeanor offense. Id. § 11.0641 ( d). 

Section l l.064l(c) provides:· 

The provisions of Subchapter B, Chapter 572, Government Code, 

governing the contents, timeliness of filing, and public inspection of 

a statement apply to a statement filed under this section as if the 

1

See generally Letter and Brief from Honorable Joseph C. Pickett, Chair, House Transp. Comm., to 

Honorable Ken Paxton, Tex. Att'y Gen. (Sept. 14, 2015), https://www.texasattomeygeneral.gov/opinion/requests-foropinion-rqs ("Request Letter" and "Brief," respectively). 
The Honorable Joseph C. Pickett - Page 2 (KP-0069) 

trustee were a state officer and the comm1ss10ners court of the 

county were the Texas Ethics Commission. 

Id. § 11.064l(c) (emphasis added).2 Accordingly, 11.0641(c) gives the commissioners court the 

powers and responsibilities of the Texas Ethics commission with respect to the contents, 

timeliness, and public inspection of a financial statement required by the section. In subchapter 

B, chapter 572, the provision concerning "Public Access to Statements" is section 572.032, which 

provides: 

(a) Financial statements filed under this subchapter are public 

records. The commission shall maintain the statements in 

separate alphabetical files and in a manner that is accessible 

to the public during regular office hours. 

(a-1) The commission shall remove the home address of a judge or 

justice from a financial statement filed under this subchapter 

before: 

(1) permitting a member of the public to view the statement; 

or 

(2) providing a copy of the statement to a member of the 

public. 

(b) During the one-year period following the filing of a financial 

statement, each time a person requests to see the financial 

statement, excluding the commission or a commission 

employee acting on official business, the commission shall 

place in the file a statement of the person's name and address, 

whom the person represents, and the date of the request. The 

commission shall retain that statement in the file for one year 

after the date the requested financial statement is filed. 

( c) After the second anniversary of the date the individual ceases 

to be a state officer, the commission may and on notification 

from the former state officer shall destroy each financial 

statement filed by the state officer. 

TEX. Gov'T CODE § 572.032. Thus, these access provisions apply only to the Texas Ethics 

Commission and, by virtue of section l 1.0641(c), the commissioners court. 

2Under a different section of the Education Code, a board of trustees, or in certain instances the commissioner 

of education, may require a board's members to file a financial statement with their board and the Texas Ethics 

Commission, not with a county commissioners court. TEX. EDUC. CODE § l 1.064(a}-(a-4). 
The Honorable Joseph C. Pickett - Page 3 (KP-0069) 

While section 11. 0641 of the Education Code requires a copy of the financial statement to 

be filed with the board of trustees, it does not address the responsibilities of the board that receives 

the required statement. See TEX. EDUC. CODE·§ 11.0641(a). Thus, we must consider other law 

governing access to public records held by governmental bodies. We are not aware of any statute, 

judicial opinion, or other law that generally prohibits a governmental body from posting a personal 

financial statement on its website. But personal financial statements that are required to be filed 

under chapter 572, subchapter Bare public records. TEX. Gov'T CODE§ 572.032(a). Under the 

Public Information Act ("PIA"), a governmental body has a duty to promptly produce public 

information. Id. § 552.221. The authority to provide access to personal financial statements by 

posting them on the district website may be implied as incident to the board of trustees' duties and 

authority under the PIA. See Tex. Roofing Co. v. Whiteside, 385 S.W.2d 699, 701 (Tex. Civ. 

App.-Amarillo 1964, writ ref d n.r.e.) (determining that a board of trustees possesses powers 

expressly conferred on it by law or necessarily implied from its express powers); Tex. Att'y Gen. 

Op. No. ORD-682 (2005) at 7 (noting that, while making information available on a website does 

not satisfy section 552.221 of the PIA, "a requestor may agree to accept information on a 

governmental body's website in fulfillment of the request" for information under the PIA). 

Accordingly, a court would likely conclude that it is within the board of trustees' discretion to post 

on the district website the personal financial statements of board members submitted pursuant to 

section 11.0641 of the Education Code. 

Members of the Legislature may have intended for the board to require the same procedures 

as the commissioners court, but the language of the statute does not do so. To conclude that the 

procedures in subsection 11.0641 ( c) apply to the board of trustees requires reading language into 

the statute, which courts generally do not do. MCI Sales & Serv. v. Hinton, 329 S.W.3d 475, 502 

(Tex. 2010) (observing that "courts should not by judicial fiat insert non-existent language into 

statutes"). If the Legislature intended for the board to follow those procedures, it should amend 

the statute accordingly. 

The personal financial statements required by section 11.0641 may contain information 

made confidential or otherwise protected under other law. See, e.g., TEX. Bus. & COM. CODE 

§ 521.051 ("Unauthorized use or Possession of Personal Identifying Information"); TEX. Gov'T 

CODE § 552.117 ("Exception: Confidentiality of Certain Addresses, Telephone Numbers, Social 

Security Numbers, and Personal Family Information"); Tex. Dep 't of Pub. Safety v. Cox Tex. 

Newspapers, L.P., 343 S.W.3d 112, 119 (Tex. 2011) (noting that information protected under the 

common-law privacy doctrine is exempt from disclosure under the PIA). Thus, while a board has 

discretion to post financial statements required by section 11.0641 on its website, it is cautioned 

that it should withhold information made confidential or otherwise protected by other law. See 

TEX. Gov'T CODE § 552.352(a) ("A person commits an offense if the person distributes 

information considered confidential under the terms of [the PIA]."). Members of the public who 

desire to do so may seek an inspection of the complete financial statements in full from the 
The Honorable Joseph C. Pickett - Page 4 (KP-0069) 

comrmss10ners court under section 11.0641 of the Education Code and chapter 572 of the 

Government Code.3 

Your second question is whether "the board of trustees by a majority vote [may] require 

the posting of the personal financial statement of a trustee who objects." Request Letter at 2. A 

board of trustees "may act only by majority vote of the members present at a meeting:" TEX. 

EDUC. CODE § 11.051 ( a-1 ). Section 11.0641 of the Education Code does not create a right in an 

individual trustee to limit disclosure of the copy of the public document filed with the board of 

trustees. Thus, under section 11.0641, a majority of the board of trustees may require the posting 

of the personal financial statement of an individual trustee over the trustee's objections.4 

3See York v. Tex. Guaranteed Student loan Corp., 408 S.W.3d 677, 685 (Tex. App.-Austin 2013, no pet.) 

(holding that exceptions from general rule ofrequired disclosure under section 552.021 of the Public Information Act 

"do not ... purport to operate more generally against public-access or disclosure requirements created or imposed by 

other law"). 

4Because the answer to your first question is in the affirmative, we do not addres1> your third question. 
The Honorable Joseph C. Pickett - Page 5 (KP-0069) 

SUMMARY 

A court would likely conclude that it is within the discretion 

of a school board of trustees subject to section 11.0641 of the 

Education Code to post on the district's website the personal 

financial statements of member trustees required by that section. 

Under section 11.0641, a majority of the board of trustees may 

require the posting of the personal financial statement of an 

individual trustee over the trustee's objections. 

JEFFREY C. MATEER 

First Assistant Attorney General 

BRANTLEY STARR 

Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel 

VIRGINIA K. HOELSCHER 

Chair, Opinion Committee 

WILLIAM A. HILL 

Very truly yours, 

KEN PAXTON 

Attorney General of Texas 

Assistant Attorney General, Opinion Committee