The Office of Attorney General issued a legal opinion today on the issue of the Somervell County Hospital District initial board makeup. The request was originally approved by the board because it was my (Paul Harper) contention that both Eugene Brode and I received 2 year terms but Ron Hankins and Brett Nabors were claiming we had to resolve the tie and that we could both not serve two year terms, even wanted us to flip a coin. Here's the original request received by the OAG office from the County Attorney Andrew Lucas who sent the request on behalf of the Hospital District; since the District did not have legal authority to actually request the opinion but the County Attorney does.

Copy of the email I sent the opinion committee on 9/7/2014 after the opinion was requested by County Attorney Andrew Lucas because you can send a legal brief to them per the opinion rules to have considered when making their decision:

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Harper
To: 'opinion.committee@texasattorneygeneral.gov'
Subject: Brief RQ-1213-GA

The District sent the attached to the County Attorney and asked them to request the opinion. I am one of the people that tied and believe that 286.042(b)(2) and (b)(3) of the Texas Health and Safety Code already resolves this issue and that is the only purpose for this section of code, to answer this one question this one time.

 Thank you for your time and consideration!

The legal opinion issued by the OAG office is on their website here but the Summary says:

When a hospital district under chapter 286 of the Health and Safety Code elects its initial permanent board of directors in an at-large election, the majority of the  directors who receive the highest number of votes serve two-year terms. A court could conclude that when two directors of a seven member board both receive the fourth-highest total number of votes, they both are included in the majority who serve two-year terms.

Very truly yours,
Ken Paxton
Attorney General of Texas

The board makeup is now as follows, those receiving two-year terms in the 2014 election (terms of office expire in 2016):
John Parker
Dr. Karen Burroughs
Chip Harrison
Eugene Brode
Paul Harper

those receiving one-year terms in the 2014 election (terms of office expire in 2015):
Ron Hankins
Brett Nabors