The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission votes Sept. 22 on whether to open for public comment a rewrite of the rules that decide what a bar, restaurant or package store pays when it breaks the law. Anyone who wants to address the commission by video gets a four-hour window to sign up, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 21.
Six sections go up at once. Together they cover the schedule of fines and suspensions for violations touching health and safety, a separate schedule for regulatory and paperwork violations, the rules on suspending a license outright, and the rule deciding when an employee’s conduct becomes the license holder’s problem. The commission is not adopting any of it Sept. 22. A yes vote sends the text to the Texas Register, and the agency must then give at least 30 days’ notice before it can adopt a rule.
What the new numbers would be is not public. The notice carries rule titles and nothing else. The current grid is what the agency applies after an inspection turns up a violation, and the question licensees will care about — whether a first offense gets more expensive — cannot be answered until the text appears.
Also up for publication: a change to the rule that bars customers from consuming hemp products inside package stores and other off-premises retailers, which now carries a $250 base penalty; amendments covering the food and beverage certificate and the bonds licensees must post; and the repeal of five rules that set up TABC advisory committees. The commission takes up next year’s internal audit plan and a contract for outside audit services, following a report on warehouse operations, fleet management and staffing.
In closed session the commission will again deliberate the appointment, employment and possible dismissal of its executive director, the item that was the only substantive business of a special meeting Sept. 1. The agency’s leadership page, checked Sept. 15, lists the executive director’s post as vacant, while a page for Thomas W. Graham, in the job since 2022, is still live. TABC has announced no departure and the Dispatch found no report of one. Minutes of the Sept. 1 meeting are up for approval on the same agenda, which is where anything decided then would first surface in public.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 10:30 a.m. CT Tuesday, September 22, 2026. The notice, TRD 2026005492, was filed September 14 at 2:45 p.m.
- Where
- Videoconference under Government Code §551.127. The presiding officer is to be physically present at 5806 Mesa Drive, Austin, which is open to the public during the open portions.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission — five unpaid members appointed by the governor to staggered six-year terms, one expiring every two years. Robert A. Eckels is chairman.
- Format
- Regular meeting. Nine rule items, all of them votes on whether to publish proposals for comment rather than adopt them, plus four closed-session items.
- Live video
- Streamed and archived on the agency’s Swagit channel, linked from the agency meetings page.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · TABC BoardDocs
Commission members
- Robert A. Eckels — chairman; Houston; attorney and former Harris County judge.
- Deborah Gray Marino — San Antonio; senior vice president, SWBC.
- M. Scott Adkins — El Paso; fire-alarm and security company president.
- Hasan K. Mack — Austin; municipal bond attorney.
- Chad M. Craycraft — Dallas; general counsel, Graduation Alliance.
Roster from the agency’s leadership page, checked September 15; the five commissioners are unchanged since the Dispatch’s September 1 preview and are cross-checked against the governor’s appointment releases — Eckels as chairman on September 29, 2025, Adkins and Craycraft on January 24, 2025, and the Marino and Mack reappointments announced August 19, 2026. The agency page gives Eckels’s city as Houston; the governor’s release gives Spring. The executive staff table on that page lists the executive director’s post as vacant as of September 15, with Yolanda A. Hall as deputy executive director; a separate page for Thomas W. Graham, executive director since 2022, remains live. The Dispatch has not confirmed which is current. Meeting contact: Luann Dickerson, Office of the Executive Director, (512) 206-3221.