Texas Attorney General: School trustees who resign but hold office Jan. 1 must file personal financial statement

The Texas Attorney General’s Office has issued an opinion on whether or not the Education Code requires school district trustees to file personal financial statements in specific circumstances.

The opinion is in response to El Paso County Attorney Jo Bernal requesting an opinion on whether or not a school board member who resigns before the law takes effect on Jan. 1, 2015 will still have to disclose personal financial information.

The AG’s Office opinion from Sept. 23 states that a trustee who resigns, but is still holding office after Jan. 1, 2015 because a replacement has not been sworn in, will be required to file the financial statement for the 2014 calendar year.

The opinion also states that a trustee who resigns between Jan. 1, 2015 and April 29, 2015 is considered an officer holder and must file a financial disclosure statement for 2014.

The financial disclosure statement would be required by April 30, 2015.

Accountability and transparency are the goals, according to State Rep. Marisa Marquez, who sponsored the bill.

At least three school boards in El Paso oppose the law, and some members feel so strongly, they may resign before their term is up.

“It’s definitely going to be an intrusion into the trustees’ privacy,” said YISD Board President Patricia Torres McLean told ABC-7 earlier this month.

McLean, a former accountant and banker, has said House Bill 343 will stop knowledgeable, qualified people from running for a board position.

“People that would be qualified to sit on this board are going to be business people, hopefully attorneys, CPA’s,” McLean said.

The 25-page disclosure form requires each trustee to declare sources of income, and to list stocks, bonds and real estate owned, including those of their spouse and dependent children.

“And school board members are volunteers,” McLean said. “So we’re volunteering a massive amount of time, spending our own money, our own gas, spending all this time, and now in addition to that we’re going to ask people to put out all your financial information?”

State Sen. Jose Rodriguez notes at least 10 people have pleaded guilty to either bribing or taking bribes in El Paso county’s three largest school districts. His web page mentions the millions trustees manage, and said, “I can find no legitimate reason that school board members should be held to a lower standard than City Council Members, County Commissioners, or State Representatives and Senators.”

The law will sunset in 2019.

“How would this law have kept the corrupt actions from taking place?” McLean said. “Anybody that’s going to take a bribe is not going to put it on the financial statement.”

Trustees who don’t comply face fines up to $10,000 and six months in jail.

“A big concern is that we may lose the best of our board members,” McLean said.

The YISD board has some prominent people, including Marty Reyes. She’s the wife of Chuy Reyes, general manager of Water Improvement District #1, and sister-in-law of former Congressman Silvestre Reyes.

“Mrs. Reyes has 14 years serving on the school board so not only is she a previous business owner, but she has all this history and all this knowledge of what this school board had done,” McLean said.

Reyes told ABC-7 she plans on serving her full term.

Some trustees have hinted they would rather resign than disclose. McLean is not one of them.

Marquez said the state may make them file the document anyway to compare their past voting record against possible conflicts of interest.

“All this is going to do in my mind is dissuade people from becoming board members and it’s ultimately going to hurt the children we’re trying to help,” McLean said.