Effective January 1, 2006, school board members and superintendents are required to file conflict disclosure statements if (1) the board member or superintendent, or the board member's or superintendent's parent, child or spouse receives any taxable income from a vendor who does business with the school district or who seeks to do business with the school district; and (2) the board member or superintendent, or the board member's or superintendent's parent, child or spouse receives gifts with a total value of $250 or more per year from a vendor who does business with the school district or who seeks to do business with the school district.  Gifts do not include food, lodging, transportation and entertainment accepted as a guest of the vendor, but the vendor or the vendor's representative must be present during the acceptance of these benefits.  If a vendor provides an all-expenses paid trip or dinner but in not present during the trip or dinner, then the value of these benefits must be considered as a gift which is to be disclosed once the aggregate amount reaches $250.  Gifts in the amount of $250 in a 12-month period from a vendor trigger a reportable event under the new law.

There is no corresponding minimum figure for receipt of taxable income so any amount of taxable income received from a vendor must be reported.  If a board member or superintendent has a banking relationship with the bank that is also the District's depository bank (which is a vendor under the statutory definition), then any amount which earns/pays interest in some other form of taxable income would require the filing of a conflict disclosure statement.  The conflict disclosure statement does not require the individual to divulge the nature of the account or how much taxable income was generated-only that such a relationship exists.  Likewise, any required report of taxable income received by a board member or superintendent, or the board member's or superintendent's parent, child or spouse, from a current or prospective vendor does not require any disclosure of the amount of taxable income.

The conflict disclosure statement must be filed with the "records administrator" of the District (usually the superintendent who is designated as the custodian of district records) on a form provided by the Texas Ethics Commission no later than 5:00pm on the seventh business day after the date on which the board member or superintendent becomes aware that facts require the filing of the conflict disclosure statement.