HonorableRobert C. Koehl OpinionNO. C- 67%

County Attorney Atascosa County Re: Whether the Commissioners Jourdanton,Texas Court of Atascosa County has authorityunder Article 2370, Vernon'0 Civil Statutes, to lease a county owned building to a furniture Dear Mr. Koehl: manufacturingfirm.

You have requested an opinion in regard to the above matter. Pertinent facts from your request are quoted as follows:

"In 1952 the CommissionersCourt of Atascosa County, Texas purchased from the Sourdanton IndependentSchool District certain real estate and improvementssituated thereon. Said improvementsconsiatlngof a complex of buildings

. . . After thenpurchase of the complex,Atascosa County renovated one ?f the build~lngs for use by Federal agencies. The gymnasium building was not renovatednor put into use by Atascosa County and pl;;esently is in a state df dilapidation. :'.
. %ec&ntly the CommissionersCourt has been approachedby a FurnitureManufacturing Firm to lease the premises and this building. The lease to be for a term of years to be agreed upon and part of the considerationfor the use and occupancy of this buildingwould be the Purniture firm renovating the building which costs would be approximately$6,000 to $0,000." "There la no present need for this building by the CommlsslonersCourt." Article 2370, Vernon's Civil Statutes,provides that the CommissionersCourt of any countymay, when necessary, furnish

-3264-Hon. Robert C. Koehl, page 2 (C&78)

suitablequarters, other than the Courthouse,for holding Court and carrying on other public business and may rent such part of any such quartersnot necessary for public use.

Section 1 of Article 2370 provides as follows: "The Commissioners Court of any Cou&y rnx, iihen

necessaryprovide buildings,rooms, or aoartmentsat the county seat other than the courthousefor holding-the sessionsof the County Courts, District Courts and for carrying on such other public business as may be authorizedby the CommissionersCourt and may lease or rent such part of any such build1 8, rooms or apartmentsas may not be necessary P- or public use:' (Emphasisadded) Section 2 of Article 2370 provides in part asfollows: vhenever any county in this State may have acquired a building (other than the courthouse) at the County seat which la used partly for public business and whxch is pextly rented for private purposes, . . :' (Emphasisaddedr Section 3 of Article 2370 provides In part as follows:

”

. . . "There shall be charged and collectedas rental for those parts of such buildingnot used for publ'lc

purposes, . . .- (Eiiiphasls addea) The relevant aectlons of Article 2370 (citedabove) clearly state that parts of public buildingsmay be leasedby the county,but nothing Is said about the lease or rental of a whole building owned by the county.

In Dancy v. Davidson, 183 S.W.2d 195 (Tex.Civ.App. 1944, error ref.], the CouFt stated (page 200) 'The statutes ;ia+ovide that certain offices shali-be located at the county It may be Implied from the provisionsof Article 2370 (prior to Its amendment In 1941) that all courts other than the 'countycourts'were required to hold their sessions In the courthouse. The amendment of the article largely did away with this restrictionand provided a permlssablemethod for financingand acquiring a public building other than a courthouse -3265-.. .

**Hon.** Robert C. Koehl, page 3 (c-678)

In the county seat.ll (Emphasisadded). Although the court ‘i th Dancy case was dealing with a different Issue than the on"e udder consideration,the court neverthelessrecognized that buildingsacquiredunder the provisions of Article 2370 are public buildings $0 be used prlmarlly for public purposes. A thoroughdiscussion of the use of public buildings for a public purpose may be found In Attorney General's OpinionNo. C-342 (1964). In view of the foregoing, It 1s our opinion that the CommissionersCourt of Atascosa County does not have the authorityunder Article 2370, Vernon's Civil Statutes, to lease a county owned building to a furnituremanufacturingfirm. S U MM A RY The CommissionersCourt of Atascosa County does not have the authorityunder Article 2370, Vernon's Civil Statutes, to lease a county owned building to a furnituremanufacturingfirm. Very truly yours, WAGGONER CARR Attorney General

JCMcC:mkh APPROVED: OPINION COMMI!l!TEE W. 0. Shultz, Chairman John neeves Paul Phy John Banks Arthur Sandlln APPROVED FOR TEE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: T. Bi Wright.