TAC has highlighted recent Attorney General Opinions and Requests for Opinions of interest to counties.
Attorney General Opinions
KP-0387: Whether House Bill 1525 requires school districts to accept PTA donations designated to fund supplemental educational staff positions and use funds donated for that purpose for the 2021-2022 school year (RQ-0411-KP). Subsection 11.156(c) of the Education Code, as enacted by HB 1525, requires a school district to accept and spend a donation from a parent-teacher organization or association designated to fund a supplemental education staff position at a specified campus in specified circumstances. HB 1525 provides that subsection 11.156(c) is effective on Sept. 1, 2021. On or after that date, a school district has a duty to accept and spend certain donations once all of the specified conditions of subsection 11.156(c) have occurred, namely that: (1) the donation derived from a parent-teacher organization or association recognized by the district, (2) the donation is designated to fund supplemental educational staff positions at a school campus, and (3) the campus has directed the expenditure for its designated purpose and has specified the time period within which the donation is to be spent. Accordingly, HB 1525 requires a district to spend donations received for the 2021-2022 school year to the extent that the donations satisfy all conditions of subsection 11.156(c).
KP-0388: Whether the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act prohibits a Texas transmission service provider from entering into interconnection agreements with entities owned by citizens of China or headquartered in China or with entities who lease assets from such an entity and related questions (RQ-0425-KP). The Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act, found in Chapter 113 of the Business and Commerce Code, prohibits contracts or other agreements with certain foreign-owned companies in certain circumstances in connection with critical infrastructure in this state. Whether federal law separately implicates the ability of entities to enter into such contracts is a question of fact and not addressed by this opinion. Under the act, a generation interconnection agreement is an agreement relating to critical infrastructure that grants a company direct or remote access to or control of critical infrastructure. Section 113.002 prohibits a generation interconnection agreement between a transmission service provider and a company that is a wholly- or majority-owned subsidiary of a Chinese company.
Under the standard generation interconnection agreement promulgated by ERCOT, a company entering into the agreement with a transmission service provider must own and operate the proposed generation resource, and a lessee without an ownership interest would not satisfy such a requirement.
A land lease agreement between a generation resource developer and a landowner could permit direct or remote access to or control of critical infrastructure such that it would be prohibited by the act in the circumstances you describe
Request for Attorney General Opinion
RQ-0433-KP: The Honorable Jenny P. Dorsey, Nueces County Attorney. Whether the doctrine of incompatibility or conflict-of-interest laws prevent simultaneous service as a county commissioner and general manager of a water authority.
RQ-0434-KP: Honorable Elton R. Mathis, Waller County Criminal District Attorney. Authority to manufacture firearm suppressors under House Bill 957 and enforcement of laws related to firearm suppressors.