Legal Counsel Divisions

The General Counsel Division provides legal advice to the Attorney General, his staff and other divisions of the office regarding a wide variety of constitutional and statutory issues. The Division drafts, reviews, and negotiates contracts on behalf of the agency, coordinates the approval process for outside counsel contracts for all state agencies, and consults with and advises state agencies on contract matters, especially high-tech contract issues. The General Counsel Division provides informal advice, orally and in writing, outside of the opinion process, to legislators, other state officers and agencies, and to quasi-state agencies, and offers assistance in rule making and other matters.

The Intergovernmental Relations Division serves as the agency's liaison to federal, state and local government. It is responsible for the planning, development, implementation and monitoring of legislative and public policy initiatives, as directed by the Attorney General and Executive Management. The County Affairs Section provides legal assistance and counsel to county officials in Texas. The section also coordinates the activities of the County Advisory Committee, which meets regularly to advise the Attorney General on local government issues. The Municipal Affairs Section provides legal assistance and information to Texas city officials. The Municipal Affairs Section coordinates meetings of the Attorney General's Municipal Advisory Committeee and produces The Economic Development Handbook.

See also: County Powers and Duties manual.

The Legal Technical Support Division serves the agency's legal divisions through its expertise in demographic and socio-economic analysis, geographic information systems analysis and financial and statistical analysis. It provides support through products ranging from narrative reports, maps, multimedia presentations and graphic displays, to the development of computer applications and database interfaces.

Litigation Technical Support has played an integral role in the agency's involvement with Census 2000.

The Open Records Division issues written decisions related to access to public information under Chapter 552 of the Government Code. The division also provides legal advice and research to the Legislative and Executive branches of state government and coordinates and participates in regional and statewide conferences on access to public information. The division operates a hotline to provide general information and to facilitate the resolution of disputes between governmental bodies and private citizens as issues arise regarding open meetings and open records laws.

TheOpinion Committee researches and drafts legal opinions in response to questions of law posed by persons authorized by statute to request formal Attorney General opinions. Officials authorized to seek Attorney General opinions are:

• the governor
• the head of a department of state government
• the head or board of a penal institution
• the head or board of an eleemosynary institution
• the head of a state board
• a regent or trustee of a state educational institution
• a committee of a house of the Texas Legislature
• a county auditor authorized by law, and
• the chairman of the governing board of a river authority.

The Public Finance Division reviews and approves all bonds and similar obligations issued by state agencies, cities, counties, school districts, municipal utility districts, hospital districts, institutions of higher education and all other governmental entities or instrumentalities of the State, plus certain nonprofit corporations created to act on behalf of political subdivisions.

All Bond Counsel Letters reflect positions taken by the Public Finance Division of the Office of the Attorney General in carrying out its statutory responsibility to review all public securities issued by any agency, district, municipal corporation or political subdivision of this state or by any nonprofit corporation acting for or on behalf of these entities. (See Chapter 1202 of the Government Code.) Please note that positions taken in some Letters have been revised by later ones. All substantive Letters since November, 1987, are included here, while only selected Letters before that date are included.