Acts 1985, 69th Leg. A number of contracts have been awarded to local councils with starting dates of September 1, 1987. Officers of state agencies are prohibited from having a direct or indirect pecuniary interest in a contract entered into on behalf of their agency. If the commission members who serve as members, employees, or advisory members of local councils are compensated for their services, they have a pecuniary interest in the local council and the contracts benefitting it. See Attorney General Opinion Nos.
Contracts made in violation of the policy prohibiting such pecuniary interests are illegal and void.
Meyers v. Walker, supra. Thus, the commission cannot legally contract with a local council in which a commission member has a pecuniary interest. The commission member will have to resign from either the commission or the local council before such contracts may be validly entered into. If a commission member holds a position with a local council which authorizes him to enter into contracts on behalf of it, another legal doctrine would also bar such contracts. In such cases, the same individual attempts to represent both the Commission for the Deaf and the local council in contract formation.