MARK WHITE 

Attorney General 

The Attorney General of Texas 

December 17, 1979 

Honor&le Joe Resweber 

Harris County Attorney 

1001 Preston, Suite 6.34 

Houston, Texas 77002 

Opinion No. MW-101 

Re: Expenditure of county bond 

funds for an addition to e detention 

home. 

Dear Mr. Resweber: 

Your request for an opinion poses the following questions: 

May monies derived from sale of the bon& 

which were issued pursuant to Proposition No. 

One of the April 14, 1973, Harris County Bond 

Election be used for the construction of an 

addition on to the present Harris County 

Detention Home? 

May the said monies be used for the 

construction of a new separate detention home? 

The bonds ~were issued under the authority of article 713, V.T.CS., 

which provides in part, as follows: 

[ahe Commissioners Court of a county may lawfully 

issue the bonds of said county for the following 

purposes: 

L To erect the county courthouse and jail, or 

either7 

2. To purchase suitable sites within the county 

and construct buildings thereon to provide 

homeIs for dependent and delinquent 

boys and girls or for either; . . . 

(Emphesis added. 

The bonds were voted for the purpose of “purchssing suitable sites 

within said county and constructing buildings thereon to provide homes or 

schools for dependent and delinquent boys and girls or for either.” Webster’s 

P- 314 
Honorable Joe Resweber - Page Two (Mw-101) 

New International Dictionary (2d ed 1947), at 572, states that the veib “construct” is 

synonymous with the velb “erect.” 

In the case of Brown v. Graham, 58 Tex. 254 (Tex. 18831, regarding a question as to 

the authority of e commissioners court to levy a special tax for the purpose of building an 

addition to end repairing a courthouse, the Supreme Court of Texas said: 

It is claimed that the power to erect, repair or complete a public 

building &es not include the power to make en addition to it. It is 

true that the county commissioners’ court, can levy no taxes unless 

the power to do so be plainly and unmistakenly conferred The 

authority must be given either ln express WOK& or by necessary 

implication. 2 Dillon on Mun. Corp. S763. It is no more than a 

reasonable constmction of language, to hold that power to erect an 

entire building expressly authorizes the construction of a portion of 

it. It certainly does by necessary implication 

. . . . 

To hold that a county whose court house, with proper repairs end 

additions, could be rendered commodious and useful In every 

respect, must pull it down and build an entirely new one, would be 

to charge our lawgivers with an intent to encourage an 

unnecessary expenditure of the public money. Such a consideration 

would not, in itself, authorize us to infer a power when not 

expressly given or necessarily implied Yet when the language used 

is capable of including authority to do an act not mentioned in 

terms, such construction of it is greatly aided by considerations of 

public advantage which it would certainly produce. 

58 Tex., et 256. See also Attorney General Opinion O-7078 (1946). 

The opinions of this office construing article VII, section 17 of the Texas 

Constitution are also relevant to your question. This constitutional provision authorizes a 

tax “for the purpose of acquiring, eonstnmtlng end initially equipping buildings or other 

permanent improvements at the designated institutions of higher learning. . . .” Although 

these funds ,cannot be used to repair existing buildings, Attorney General Opinion V-848 

(19491, they are available to finance a wing on an existing building. Attorney General 

Opinion V-1427 (1952), V-848 (1949); see also Attorney General Opinion H-1248 (1978). We 

believe the language of article 718, V.T.C.S., would also encompass the construction of an 

addition to an existing bullding. 

Therefore, in view of the foregoing it is our opinion that the commissioners court 

has authority to expend such bond proceeds in the most practicable manner to provide 

homes or schods for dependent and delinquent children, whether such would be best 

,eccomplished by making additions to existing homes or schools, or by the construction of 

new separate homes or schools. 

P. 315 
Honorable Joe Resweber - Page Three (NW-1011 

SUMMARY 

The Commissioners Court of Harris County is authorized by law to 

use bond proceeds for construction of additions to the existing 

juvenile detention home or for the construction of new facilities 

for such purpose. 

MARK WHITE 

Attorney General of Texas 

JOHN W. FAINTER, JR. 

First Assistant Attorney General 

TED L. HARTLEY 

Executive Assistant Attorney General 

Prepared by Susan Garrison 

end D. Ladd PattilIo 

Assistant Attorneys General 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMI’ITEE 

C. Robert Heath, Chairmen 

David B. Brooks 

Bob Gemmage 

Susan Garrison 

Rick Gilpin 

Wllliem G Reid 

Susan Lee Voss 

Bruce Youngblood 

P. 316