April 5, 2002
This Advisory Opinion concerns the following issue as formulated from facts and/or circumstances furnished by a requestor. The Commission approved this opinion on April 5, 2002, basing its approval solely on the facts and circumstances stated herein.
May a city fireman also work in a part-time position for the city’s public works department?
State law restricts the Mississippi Ethics Commission to interpreting and issuing opinions on Sections 25-4-101 through 25-4-119, 1972 Mississippi Code Annotated and Article IV, Section 109, Mississippi Constitution of 1890.Therefore, this opinion does not address the Mississippi laws outside the Commission’s jurisdiction nor the governmental entity’s internal rules and regulations.
The pertinent conflict of interest laws to be considered here are:
Code Section 25-4-103(e),
(f)(i)(ii), (g)(ii), (h) and (p)(i)(ii)(iii)states:
“(e) ‘Compensation’ mean money or thing of value received, or to be received, from any person for services rendered.(f) ‘Contract’ means:
(i) Any agreement to which the government is a party; or(ii) Any agreement on behalf of the government which involves the payment of public funds.
(g) ‘Governmental’ means the state and all political entities thereof, both collectively and separately, including but not limited to:
(ii) Municipalities.
(h) ‘Governmental entity’ means the state, a county, a municipality or any other separate political subdivision authorized by law to exercise a part of the sovereign power of the state.(p) ‘Public servant’ means:
(i) Any elected or appointed official of the government;(ii) Any officer, director, commissioner, supervisor, chief, head, agent or employee of the government or any agency thereof, or of any public entity created by or under the laws of the State of Mississippi or created by an agency or governmental entity thereof, any of which is funded by public funds or which expends, authorizes or recommends the use of public funds; or
(iii) Any individual who receives a salary, per diem or expenses paid in whole or in part out of funds authorized to be expended by the government.”
Code Section 25-4-105(3)(a)
states:
“(3) No public servant shall:(a) Be a contractor, subcontractor or vendor with the governmental entity of which he is a member, officer, employee or agent, other than in his contract of employment, or have a material financial interest in any business which is a contractor, subcontractor or vendor with the governmental entity of which he is a member, officer, employee or agent.”
Pertinent facts and circumstances provided by the requestor, absent
identifying data, are set forth as follows and considered a part of this
opinion.
I need a ruling on whether a full-time fireman for the City can work in a part-time position for the City Public Works Department.He works a 24 hour on, 48 hour off shift for the Fire Department.He would work a maximum of 32 hours, a minimum of 16 hours a week for the Public Works Department.
Based solely on the facts and circumstances presented by the requestor, the Commission’s opinion is as follows.
Code Section 25-4-105(3)(a), cited above, prohibits a public servant, including a city fireman, from being a contractor with the governmental entity of which he is an employee.
Therefore, Code Section 25-4-105(3)(a) will prohibit a fireman from contracting with his city employer to perform a service for compensation in addition to the fireman’s normal salary including working for the city public works department.
The Commission’s continued interpretation of Code Section 25-4-105(3)(a) is that a public servant may hold only one position with the authority of the governmental entity of which he or she is a member, officer, employee or agent.
Scott Rankin
Executive Director