Conflicts and recusals

Nobody asked me to write this. I would rather you hear it from me now than wonder about it later.

Two things about my life could reasonably raise a question if I am elected. Here they are, along with exactly what I would do about each one. If you think I have missed something, tell me and I will add it to this page.

My wife teaches in Willis ISD

She has taught here since before I decided to run, and she will keep teaching here whether I win or lose. Texas nepotism law (Government Code Chapter 573) allows a relative who was already employed to keep their job when a family member is elected. It also tells me what I cannot vote on, and the line is narrower than most people assume.

I would step away from:

• Any action naming her individually: her contract, her assignment, her evaluation, her nonrenewal, a stipend that applies only to her
• Any grievance or appeal where she is a party or a witness
• Any action framed as a class of employees but drawn so narrowly that she is effectively the only person in it

On districtwide decisions, the answer is yes, I would vote, and the law is clear that I can. A raise for every teacher in the district is a bona fide class of employees, not a favor to my household. If the rule worked the other way, every trustee in Texas married to a teacher would be barred from teacher pay votes, and the people closest to the classroom would be the only ones silenced.

I will also say out loud what everyone already knows: my household benefits from a districtwide raise. So does every teacher's household in Willis. That is the entire point of a raise.

Three things I am promising that the law does not require. I will not contact administrators about her employment. I will not accept a campus complaint about her supervisor. And I will state the conflict on the record before any of these discussions begin, every time, so that nobody has to go looking for it.

I serve on the Conroe Industrial Development Corporation

It is an unpaid appointment, and I plan to keep it if I am elected. Here is the honest assessment of how much it overlaps with Willis ISD, which is: not much.

The CIDC is a Type B corporation funded by a quarter cent of City of Conroe sales tax. It spends that money on projects inside the city. Willis ISD's tax rate, its budget, and its state funding are untouched by anything that board does.

The two maps do touch. Part of Willis ISD sits inside the Conroe city limits, and we have campuses there. That overlap is almost entirely residential. Most of what the CIDC does is commercial, though not all of it: the board has funded utility infrastructure, including water wells, and water serves rooftops as much as it serves businesses. So I am not going to tell you the two never meet. What I can tell you is that none of it changes what Willis ISD collects or spends, and none of it puts a dollar in my pocket. I would rather say all of this plainly than have you find it on an agenda and wonder why I left it out.

One thing worth saying plainly, because people assume otherwise: Texas school districts have not been permitted to grant property tax abatements since 2001. That is a city and county tool. A Willis ISD trustee never votes on one, so the incentive question that usually follows economic development work does not reach this board at all.

Growth could bring the two closer. Conroe is building north, toward us, and a future CIDC project could land inside Willis ISD boundaries. If a matter ever comes before this board involving a property, a project, or a company I have dealt with at the CIDC, I will say so before the vote rather than after, and I will step away from it.

What I do not have

I do not own, work for, or hold a financial interest in any business that sells to Willis ISD. I have no vendor relationship, no contract, no consulting arrangement, and no property interest connected to the district.

That goes for my family as well. No one in my family owns or holds an interest in a company that does business with Willis ISD, and none of them stands to gain from a contract this board votes on. My wife's teaching job is the whole of my household's financial connection to the district, and it is on this page in full.

I am not asking you to take my word for it permanently. If any of this changes, this page changes with it, and I will say so publicly rather than quietly editing it.

Last updated September 15, 2026. Questions about anything here are welcome: tim@timforwillis.org or 936-203-0900.

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