In addition, the board allocated another $130,000 to retain extra legal counsel to explore options to have Frazier disciplined or removed from the board.

Frazier said he wasn’t surprised by the censure, since it was the second time he’s been reprimanded by the board. He was stripped of his secretary-treasurer post and committee assignments in March 2005 after he conducted a controversial employee satisfaction survey. Since that time, he has had to file public information requests to get sufficient information about district governance to do his job as a board member, he said.

The board also voted to charge for staff time in filling public information requests, following a schedule of limits provided by the state and making no room for exceptions.

Frazier said he wasn’t humiliated by the move, nor does he believe he violated any laws.

“I believe that if they had evidence that I violated state law, they’d be down there at the sheriff’s office tomorrow morning,” Frazier said.

Mustang delivers water and sewer services to about 3,000 customers in northeastern Denton County and handles the billing for more than 4,000 more residents in freshwater supply districts along U.S. Highway 380. Mustang customers elect nine representatives to govern the district, which can charge fees for its services, but cannot tax residents in its service area.

Only board member Bill Hathaway questioned a portion of the censure order that states Frazier violated the law by publishing confidential employee information on a Web site.

“Ethics are ours to decide,” Hathaway said. “But I don’t know that this [the censure] is the forum,” for deciding whether Frazier violated state law.

Hathaway’s comments followed a spirited discussion between Frazier and the district’s counsel, John Rapier, over when an employee evaluation becomes a public document.

Lance Vanzant, one of the attorneys retained by the district to explore whether to remove Frazier from the board, said that while censuring a board member is not part of an enforcement provision, it is also fairly uncommon.

“Matters have to rise to a real level of frustration,” Vanzant said.

The board took no action after meeting with Vanzant and fellow attorney Philip Mack Furlow in executive session for about a half-hour near the end of the meeting.