A public official's indirect interest is sufficient to invalidate a public contract. In Bexar County v. Wentworth, Bexar County's purchase of voting machines was invalid because the Bexar County commissioner who cast the deciding vote to let the contract held an exclusive sales contract with the company that supplied the voting machines.
The commissioner was entitled to compensation for every voting machine he sold in Texas, except in Bexar County. Nonetheless, the court found that he still could have an indirect interest in the contract with Bexar County because the sale of voting machines there could promote the sales elsewhere.
Similarly, an attorney general opinion concluded that a school district could not contract with a company that employed a member of the district's board of trustees. Even though the trustee derived no direct financial benefit from the contract, he still had an interest in the success of his employer.
The story that won't go away! The media outlets have picked up on this issue. Now, we wait and see what will happen.
