Credit Union Commission to Weigh a Rehearing in a Statewide Membership Fight Nov. 6

The Texas Credit Union Commission will decide Nov. 6 whether to rehear its own August order in a long fight over whether one credit union may sign up members in all 254 Texas counties.

Cooperative Teachers Credit Union asked to amend its bylaws to serve the whole state. The commissioner approved the expansion but cut it to eight counties. The credit union took that to the state’s administrative court, where a judge recommended approving the application with no geographic limit, reasoning that the record did not establish the credit union could not serve a larger group. Commission members questioned that reasoning when they first heard it, and in late 2024 they sent the case back to the commissioner, who issued a final order in February 2025.

Then it sat. At a meeting in March this year the department’s general counsel hoped to bring the case to a close but reported the credit union had no lawyer at the time. On Aug. 7 the commission heard argument, went into closed session, and voted unanimously to rescind the February 2025 order and adopt the administrative judge’s proposed decision with changes the chairman outlined. The minutes identify, by number, the findings and conclusions those changes touched, and refer to a draft order in the meeting materials, but not what any of them says. The Dispatch could not obtain the order itself, so what the August vote left standing is not clear from the public record. The Nov. 6 item is the motion for rehearing — the step that has to happen before a final decision can be taken to district court.

The commission also works through a stack of its own rules. Four amendments reach final adoption, on who may serve as a credit union director, what directors may be paid and reimbursed, the confidentiality of member records, and safe deposit boxes. Eight more go out for comment. Most are housekeeping: refreshing citations to federal investment regulations, pulling scattered definitions into the definitions section, splitting a dividend provision in two. The one with teeth rewrites how deposits from non-members are capped and drops a required warning that such deposits are uninsured, after the department was told the warning is often untrue. That item was pulled from the August agenda and is back.

Rounding out the day: the commissioner’s annual performance review and pay, a report on the health of the state credit union system, an update on hiring outside internal auditors, and the 2027 meeting calendar. Public comment is open on anything within the commission’s charge and capped at ten minutes a person unless members vote to allow more.

Meeting at a glance

Commission members

• James L. “Jim” Minge — chair; Arlington; credit union chief executive.
• Becky L. Ames — vice chair; Beaumont; public member.
• David F. Shurtz — Hudson Oaks; credit union counsel; Rules Committee chair.
• David Bleazard — Katy; credit union chief executive.
• Chance Peeler — Bonham; credit union commercial lender; appointed August 2026.
• Karyn C. Brownlee — Coppell; public member; Commissioner Evaluation Committee chair.
• Cody R. Huggins — Georgetown; public member.
• Sara Jones Oates — Austin; public member.
• One public seat vacant.

Names and cities are from the department’s commission roster, checked October 28, with committee roles from the November committee packets and the vice chair from the August meeting packet. Peeler is not yet on the roster page; he comes from the governor’s August 4 appointment release, and the Dispatch places him in a credit union seat because his term expiration matches that of a credit union executive who stepped down after the March meeting. Bleazard’s city is from his 2022 appointment release rather than the roster page, which gives only his employer’s location. Meeting contact: Isabel Velasquez, (512) 837-9236.