The Texas Ethics Commission has the following powers, which are documented by these records: to pursue sworn complaints alleging violations of state ethics laws; to penalize violators of state ethics laws; to sponsor ethics training and informational programs, and to explain compliance guidelines; to issue advisory opinions, which apply ethics laws to specific situations of fact; to require regulatory agencies of the executive branch to develop rules for the commission's approval that limit the acceptance of benefits from regulated entities; to recommend salary levels for members of the legislature and the lieutenant governor, which are submitted to the voters at the next general election; to set the per diem paid to legislators and to the lieutenant governor. The Ethics Commission was preceded by a Public Servant Standards of Conduct Advisory Committee, and a State Ethics Advisory Commission. These records consist of copies of minutes and agenda of meetings, organizational charts, Texas State Ethics Advisory Commission opinions, candidate-officeholder and specific-purpose political committee contribution and expenditure reports, state officers personal financial statements, and administrative correspondence. Overall dates are 1979-2008, bulk 1992-1996. Copies of minutes and agenda of meetings of the Texas Ethics Commission Transition Task Force, dating October-December 1991, are following by minutes and agenda for the Texas Ethics Commission dating 1992-2008. The summary minutes include the following: advisory opinion requests (AORs), usually with the question and a summary answer (these form the most voluminous part of the minutes); commission comments, executive director comments, and comments from the public; discussion and action on proposed rules; briefings, discussion, and possible action on a variety of other items, including the budget, the strategic plan, the electronic database, interagency contracts, training programs for state employees and members of the legislature, an imaging system to replace the microfilming of archived records, requests to waive certain fines assessed for late filings of reports, etc. No minutes have been located by the Ethics Commission or by the State Archives for either the Public Servant Standards of Conduct Advisory Committee, or the State Ethics Advisory Commission, predecessors of the Ethics Commission created in 1981 and 1983. There are five organizational charts of the Texas Ethics Commission, dating July 2001-February 2003. Names of all 35 to 36 employees are included in these one-page charts, along with their job titles. Advisory opinions consist of copies of 29 ethics advisory opinions issued by the Texas State Ethics Advisory Commission in 1984 and 1986, the bulk of them from 1984. Each opinion contains a brief statement of the request for opinion, the opinion itself, and a summary of the opinion, and is signed by the chairman of the State Ethics Advisory Commission. The opinions concern such issues as lobbying activities and expenses, campaign contributions, travel, personal use of state equipment, amendments to financial statements made after filing, loans by candidates to political action committees, use of political contributions to purchase a residence, compensation for services rendered by the executive director of a state regulatory agency to an out-of-state industry in the regulated field, etc. The largest groups of records are the ethics filings, including contribution and expenditure reports of candidates and officeholders, and state officers personal financial statements. Contribution and expenditure reports of candidates and officeholders, and of specific-purpose political committees, with associated correspondence, date 1979-1996, bulk 1992-1994. Included are accounts from primary, general, and special elections. The following officeholders (and candidates for those positions) are required to file these reports with the Texas Ethics Commission: statewide elective offices (governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, state comptroller, land commissioner, agriculture commissioner, railroad commissioners, supreme court justices, and court of criminal appeals judges); state senators and state representatives; courts of appeals justices; members of the State Board of Education; district judges; district attorneys from multi-county districts; and certain county chairs of political parties. Each candidate, campaign manager, or assistant campaign manager was required to keep a record of all funds received and disbursed. The reports include the following: names and addresses of all contributors of more than $50 aggregate, plus the amounts; names and addresses of all persons and entitites receiving expenditures of more than $50 aggregate, plus the amounts and the purposes; and a summary. State officers personal financial statements date 1992-1996. They consist of financial disclosure statements of the following: state officers (i.e., elected officers at the state or district level, appointed officers, salaried appointed officers, appointed officers of major state agencies, and executive heads of state agencies), candidates for elective office, and party chairmen. Files report the financial activities of the individual, and of his spouse and dependent children (if the individual had actual control over that financial activity during the preceding calendar year). Administrative correspondence dates 1997-2000 and undated, with the bulk of it from 1999. It includes correspondence, memoranda, a request for offer (RFO), vendor's responses to the RFO, reports and studies, surveys, bill analyses, notes, spreadsheets, and audiocassettes of Texas Senate hearings. All of this material relates to the development of an electronic filing system.
