The Texas Board of Architectural Examiners meets Thursday for what appears to be its first public discussion of a request from the state’s new deregulation office to comb its own rulebook for requirements it can drop.
The Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office was created by a 2025 law that took effect inside the governor’s office that September. Its self-evaluation is not an open-ended invitation. The statute directs the office to help agencies name rules that are unnecessary or ineffective, to weigh what those rules cost the state and the people they regulate, and to coordinate on repeal or amendment — specifically by cutting required training hours, reducing the number of forms, trimming what those forms ask for, cutting or eliminating fees, narrowing the range of activities a rule covers, and writing in waivers or exemptions. The office publishes a guide meant to help agencies make those cuts and document what they cut.
For this board the request reaches three licensed professions — architects, landscape architects and registered interior designers — and the continuing-education requirements that generate most of its enforcement work. Nothing about the office appears in the board’s published meeting notebooks for last November, February or May, so Thursday looks like the first time members take it up in the open. It is posted for discussion, not a vote.
The votes are elsewhere. Members take up next year’s operating budget and 14 enforcement cases — six involving registered practitioners or people the agency identifies as non-registrants, and eight over continuing education. That mix is ordinary here. Across the four meetings from last August through May the board acted on 47 cases, and roughly two-thirds were continuing-education matters. Members also hear an update on a national effort to let people qualify for an architect’s license by routes other than an accredited degree, name a voting delegate to an interior design council meeting, adopt a resolution honoring Jennifer Hogan, and set four board dates for 2027.
The last item is the one to watch: behind closed doors the board reviews the executive director’s annual performance, sets his goals for the coming year, and may act on any personnel proposal once it returns to open session.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 10 a.m. CT Thursday, August 20, 2026. The notice was filed August 12.
- Where
- 505 E. Huntland Drive, Austin — Suite 370 in the state notice, though the board’s own published address is Suite 350. The chair presides in person; some members may join by videoconference.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Board of Architectural Examiners — nine seats the governor fills with Senate consent: four architects, one landscape architect, one registered interior designer and three public members. Darren L. James chairs.
- Format
- In person, with public comment taken at the top under preliminary matters. A draft of the proposed budget is posted on the board’s homepage, as state law requires before a budget vote.
- Live video
- None found. The board advertises no livestream; it publishes a board notebook of meeting materials and, later, approved minutes.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · board agendas page
Board members
- Darren L. James, Lewisville — chair; architect.
- Jennifer N. Walker, Lampasas — vice chair; architect.
- Justin S. Hiles, Dallas — secretary-treasurer; architect.
- Eva M. Read-Warden, Bryan — architect.
- Timothy A. Bargainer, Georgetown — landscape architect.
- Rosa G. Salazar, Lubbock — registered interior designer.
- Joyce J. Smith, Burnet — public member; certified public accountant.
- Michael A. Ebbeler Jr., Houston — public member.
Eight members are named; the board’s own May 2026 notebook and its November 2025 notebook both record roll calls of eight, and no ninth public member appears in any 2025 or 2026 roll call, so the ninth seat looks vacant. The board’s own page would not load for automated retrieval; the roster above comes from those minutes, cross-checked against governor’s appointment releases. No appointment release for this board has issued since December 15, 2023. James and Bargainer are serving past terms that expired January 31, 2025; Texas law lets members hold over until replaced. Statutory composition is set by Occupations Code §1051.101. Accommodation requests: (512) 305-8548, five workdays ahead.