1. (a) The Secretary of State has prepared a Primary Election Services Contract (the "Model Contract"). Copies of the Model Contract may be obtained from the Secretary of State.
2. (b) The county chair should use the Model Contract when executing an agreement for election services between the county executive committee and the county elections officer. (Contractible election services are listed in Subchapter B of Chapter 31 of the Texas Election Code.) By using the Model Contract, the county chair meets the Secretary of State approval requirement set forth in §31.092(b) of the Texas Election Code.
3. (c) The Model Contract may be revised as necessary to accommodate the specific agreement between the county chair and county election official; however, activities not required by law are not payable with primary finance funds. Accordingly, those activities should be identified in the contract, including a stipulation as to whether the county chair or the county election official will be responsible for the cost. The county chair shall submit to the Secretary of State for approval any change to the Model Contract or any alternate contract that the chair desires to use. A contract submitted under this subsection must be signed by both parties to the contract, the county chair and county election official.
4. (d) Before the county chair may make final payment, the county election official must submit to the county chair an accounting of the actual costs incurred in the performance of the election-services contract. This must be included with the Final Primary Election Cost Report.
5. (e) The Secretary of State may only pay actual costs incurred by the county and payable under provisions of the Texas Election Code, an election-services contract, or these administrative rules.
6. (f) A contract may not allow for reimbursement for training of election workers or providing materials published by the Secretary of State.
7. (g) Salaries of personnel regularly employed by the county may not be paid from or reimbursed to the county from the primary fund even if the employee used their vacation time to perform the duties.
8. (h) A county-elections officer may not contract for the performance of any duty or service that he or she is statutorily obligated to perform.
9. (i) Costs associated with an election services contract are not counted toward the administrative salary limits established under §81.123 of this title (relating to Administrative Personnel Limited).
10. (j) If authorized in the contract, county election officials who contract or conduct joint primaries must pay all bills for items they order on behalf of the parties, and seek reimbursements from the parties.

Source Note:The provisions of this §81.131 adopted to be effective December 13, 2009, 34 TexReg 8665.