Texas Ethics Commission Weighs Whether It Can Fine Filers It Never Notified

The Texas Ethics Commission takes up a question about its own power Sept. 23: whether it can fine someone for filing a required financial disclosure late when the commission never sent the notice telling that person to file.

Texas officeholders, candidates and senior state appointees file a personal financial statement every year listing income, property, debts and business ties. The law says the commission shall mail each of them a notice that the filing is due and when. Miss the deadline and the penalty is $500; once a statement runs more than 30 days late the commission sends a warning by registered mail, and an unpaid warning can be escalated by rule to as much as $10,000.

One of four opinion requests on the agenda asks what happens when the first step never occurred. The notice does not name who asked and gives no facts beyond the question. An advisory opinion is not a decision in a case; it states how the agency reads the law, and a filer who reasonably relies on one gains a defense. Separately, 25 filers are appealing penalties for late reports, with staff recommending a full waiver for 14 of them, a reduction for four, and no relief for seven. Those appeals concern campaign-finance and other reports, not only financial statements, so an opinion would not necessarily reach them.

The commission is also reworking how it tells people they are in trouble. One proposed amendment covers the informal notice it sends a respondent that a violation has been alleged. Others deal with corrected and late reports, the certificates companies file disclosing who has a stake in a government contract, and legislative per diem. Three more opinion requests are up: whether a former member of an agency’s governing board may deal with that agency’s staff while representing another party in a court challenge to one of its orders; whether someone selling legislative training must register as a lobbyist and label the materials; and whether money raised to pay a voter’s election-contest legal bills is a political contribution. Five lawsuits against the commission or its executive director go to closed session.

The commission also holds its annual election of chair and vice chair. Five of the six commissioners the agency currently lists hold terms its own roster shows as expired, Chair Chris Flood’s since 2019. Texas boards commonly keep seating members past their terms while awaiting replacements.

Meeting at a glance

Commission members

• Chris Flood — chair; Houston; criminal defense lawyer; term expired 2019.
• Patrick W. Mizell — vice chair; Houston; litigation partner and former state district judge.
• Randall H. Erben — Austin; lawyer; adjunct professor at the University of Texas law school.
• Sean Gorman — Houston; partner at White & Case; appointed 2024.
• Geanie W. Morrison — Victoria; served 13 terms in the Texas House.
• Richard S. Schmidt — Corpus Christi; retired federal bankruptcy judge.
• Joseph O. Slovacek — Houston; lawyer at Hoover Slovacek since 1976.
• Mark Strama — Austin; former state representative; directs a University of Texas institute.

Roster built from the commission’s own commissioners pages, the February 11, 2026 public meeting minutes, at which all eight members were recorded present, and the governor’s appointment releases. One caution: the commission’s website currently shows only six commissioner pages and no longer lists Gorman or Morrison. The Dispatch found no resignation notice, no replacement appointment and no vacancy announcement, so both are printed here on the strength of the February minutes and their appointment releases. Terms posted by the commission: Strama to November 19, 2027; Erben expired November 19, 2025; Mizell, Schmidt and Slovacek November 19, 2021; Flood November 19, 2019. The November 19, 2027 dates for Gorman and Morrison come from the governor’s releases, not from the commission, whose pages for the two return errors. Appointing authority: the governor named Mizell, Schmidt, Gorman and Morrison; the lieutenant governor named Flood and Slovacek; the House speaker named Erben and Strama. James Tinley is executive director; Amanda Arriaga is general counsel. Staff contact: (512) 463-5800.