The five-member council that employs every staff member working for the state’s physical therapy and occupational therapy boards meets Friday in Austin. Its one substantive item is the employment of the executive director who runs the agency.
Texas licenses physical therapists and occupational therapists through two separate boards, but neither board has staff of its own. A 1993 law put a single council above both and gave it everything the boards need to function — the payroll, the personnel files, the licensing records, the investigators. Between them the two boards license the therapists who treat stroke, injury and disability patients across the state. The council is small by design: one therapist and one public member from each board, plus a public member the governor appoints. The law requires it to employ a director and the clerical and administrative staff both boards run on.
Item 8 is written the way personnel captions usually are. It covers appointment, employment, compensation, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline or dismissal, all in one line, and the notice says nothing beyond that. Ralph Harper is the executive director; the agency’s staff page, updated in May, still lists him. Nothing on the notice indicates which of those things the council intends to take up, or whether it intends to act at all. The council may close the meeting for any item, and personnel matters are among the subjects the open meetings law allows behind closed doors.
The rest is routine. The council approves minutes from its February 13 meeting — the agenda item that identifies when it last met — and hears the director’s report on the budget, performance measures, staffing and recent legislation. Members then set future meeting dates. The council meets roughly three times a year; no 2026 minutes have been posted to its minutes page, where the most recent file is from August 2025.
Public comment comes early, at item 3, before the reports. Anyone who wants a say on the director’s employment should be in the room at the start — the council advertises no stream, and the only recording is an audio file available on request a week after the meeting.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 8:30 a.m. CT Friday, August 14, 2026. The notice was filed August 4.
- Where
- 1801 Congress Ave., Suite 10.900, Austin.
- Governing body & chair
- Executive Council of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Examiners — five members drawn from the two therapy boards, plus a public member named by the governor. Manoranjan “Mano” Mahadeva presides.
- Format
- Noticed as a videoconference meeting, but the room is the only public access point. The presiding officer attends in person. Public comment is item 3. Closed session possible on any item.
- Live video
- None advertised. No public stream appears on the notice or on the agency’s meeting dates page. An audio recording is available on request after August 21 from info@ptot.texas.gov.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · Executive Council
Council members
- Manoranjan “Mano” Mahadeva, Frisco — presiding officer. Term to 2027.
- Harvey Aikman, McAllen — physical therapist. Term to 2027.
- Stephanie Johnston, Magnolia — occupational therapist. Term to 2027.
- Eddie Jessie, Houston — occupational therapy board public member. To 2031.
- Donivan Hodge, Spicewood — public member. Term to 2029.
Names, cities and term dates are from the agency’s Council and Staff page. The five-seat composition — an occupational therapist and a public member from the occupational therapy board, a physical therapist and a public member from the physical therapy board, and one public member appointed by the governor — is set by Occupations Code §452.051. The page does not say which member holds which seat. Staff contact for this meeting: Randall Glines, (512) 305-6900.