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E GENEKZAL

Honorable GeorgeW. Cox State Health OPflcer Texas State Board of Health Austin, Texas

Dear Dr. Cox: OpinionNo O-7301 Re: Constructlonof general provlslon (b) of Senate Bill 317, 49tti Leg. Ch. 378, Sec. 11, with respect to travel expenses incurredwithin the city or townwhere an employee is stationed.

We beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter asking for
an opinion from this department as follows:

"We refer to the General Provisionsof the DepartmentalAppropriatlonBill (S.B.,317of the 49th Legislature,Chapter 378, General Provisions,Section 11, Paragraphb), which reads as follows:
"l(b) The State Comptroller shall not pay, and no State Officer or employee of any of the Departments or otherAgencies of the Government shall include In his travel expense account, any amounts for meals and/or lodging Incurredwlthin the City or town where such officer or employee Is stationed. Such employeesas are stationed away from theirmain office or headquarterswho are not allowed traveling expenses where so stationed, shallbe allowed such expense when called tothelrmain office.'
"With the above In mind, we should like to know If the stateHealth Officer, or his duly authorized Agent, has the authority to station employees of the Department In towns and cities over the State as he may deem necessary and transfer employees from one town to the other as he may deem necessary, thereby changing their statlons.

'Wewould like to know what constitutes an employee's station and If he must maintain a home or.

Honorable GeorgeW. Cox ,page 2 O-7301

room within assigned town for It to be known as hls station.

'We shall appreciate your opinion on the above question."
Article 4418d of the Revised Civil Statutes (Vernon's codlflcatlon) Is as follows:

"The State Health Officer shall be the executive head of the State Department of Health, and he shall, subject to the provisions, of this Act, exercise all the powers and discharge all the duties now vested by law In the Texas State Department of Health and the StateHealth Offlcer, as well as all powers now vested by law In any officer, assistant, director or bureau head of the State Department ofHealth, excepting only such powers as may be conferredby this Act upon the State Board of Health hereby created. The State Health Officer,with the approval of the State Board of Health, may organize and maintainwithin his Department such divisions of service as are deemed necessary for the efficient conduct of the work of the Department. From time to time, he shall appoint directors of such divisions, as well as other employeesof the Department, and shalldesignate the duties and aupervise the work of all such directors and employees. He shall have the power,with the approval of the StateBoard of Health, to prescribe and promulgate such administrativerules and regulations,not inconsistentwith any law of the State, as may be deemed necessary for the effectiveperformance of the duties Imposedby this or any other lawupon the State Department of Health and Its several officers and~dlvlslons."

The latter part of this Article very deflnltely clothes the State,Health Officerwith broad discretionarypowerswith respect to the control of employees In the task of performing the functions of the Health Department.

This powerundoubtedly Includesa dlscretlon in the Health Officer to station employees In the various parts of the State thoughtby him to be In the Interest of proper aupervlslon. Slmllarly, of course, he would have the power to restatlon the employeesaccording to the changingneeds therefor. This answers your first question.Honorable GeorgeW.

As to what to advise that such Cox, page 3 O-7301

constitutiesan employee's "station",we beg station is the place to which the employee la assigned as the one from which he will operate In the performance of his assigned duties -- employee that is, the abldlng El;;et;fsthe

--.abase of operations. The word "station connection carrieswith It the ldea.of somethingmore than a temporarypresence thereat. It connotesduration or permanence, for the time being, rather thanmere temporarypresence of the employee. It 1s akln to the question of one's residence
or homestead, in that there la embodied In the conception the feature of IntentIon of the State Health Officer, and, of course, the employee of a fixed place in and fromwhich the employee will operate. No definite term or time, however,need be In the mlnd of the State Health Officer, for condltlonscould, arise that would call for a change of base at any time.

This department once had this questionbefore It, and answered in OpinionNo. O-3008, as follows:

"The question of 'statlonlng'employees is one whlch,mst address itselfprimarily to the discretion of the department heads. Of course, the provlalona of theAppropriationBill above quoted may not be evadedby termingwhat Is In truth an actual change of headquartersa 'temporaryassignment;'but It cannot be said that circumstancesmay not existwhich' would justifya temporary assignment', rather than a change of statlon, though It had been decided by the department head that at a later date,,a permanent change of statlonwould be effected.

We trust that what we have said Is a sufficientanswer to your lnqulry.
Very truly yours,

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF

OS-MR-w 'By i/Ocie Speer Ocle Speer APPECVEBJULY 24, 1946 Assistant shf.?.'YGep~rt (Acting).

ATTORNEY GEEEBAL OF~TEEAS -,

_ ~~.~~~ ipprovei Cpinibn'~C'~rm;littee~By"$~G~ Chairman
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. TEXAS