KP-0265
Categories
Conflicts of Interest , Incompatibility of Offices , Constitutional Law - Texas , Incompatibility of Offices , Dual Office Holding , Incompatibility of Offices , Municipal Officers and Employees , Incompatibility of OfficesSummary
Article XVI, section 40 of the Texas Constitution, which prohibits dual office holding in certain circumstances, does not prevent the City of Ranger chief of police from simultaneously serving as city manager.
The common-law doctrine of self-employment incompatibility prohibits one person from holding an office and an employment that the office supervises. Language in the Ranger city charter suggests that the city manager may supervise the chief of police. To the extent that is the case, an individual may not serve in the two separate positions of city manager and chief of police.
If the city commission exercised its authority to combine the roles of city manager and chief of police, the city commission could employ a single 1.ndividual to perform both roles without raising concerns about self-employment incompatibility.