This Advisory Opinion concerns the following issue as formulated from facts and/or circumstances furnished by a requestor. The Commission approved this opinion on September 6, 2002, basing its approval solely on the facts and circumstances stated herein.
 

 May a former deputy sheriff sell products to his former employing county, including the sheriff’s 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:

Constitutional Section 109 states:
 

“No public officer or member of the legislature shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract with the state, or any district, county, city, or town thereof, authorized by any law passed or order made by any board of which he may be or may have been a member, during the term for which he shall have been chosen, or within one year after the expiration of such term.”

Code Section 25-4-103(c), (d), (f)(i)(ii), (g)(ii), (h), (m) and (p)(i)(ii)(iii) state:

“(c) ‘Business’ means any corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, firm, enterprise, franchise, association, organization, holding company,  self-employed individual, joint stock company, receivership, trust or other legal entity or undertaking organized for economic gain, a  nonprofit corporation or other such entity, association or organization receiving public funds.

(d) ‘Business with which he is associated’ means any business of which a public servant or his relative is an officer, director, owner, partner, employee or is a holder of more than ten percent (10%) of the fair market value or from which he or his relative derives more than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) in annual income or over which such public servant or his relative exercises control.

(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.

(m) ‘Person’ means any individual, firm, business, corporation, association, partnership, union or other legal entity, and where appropriate a governmental entity.

(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.”

“(2) No public servant shall be interested, directly or indirectly, during the term for which he shall have been chosen, or within one (1) year after the expiration of such term, in any contract with the state, or any district, county, city or town thereof, authorized by any law passed or order made by any board of which he may be or may have been a member.

(3) No public servant shall:
 

(e) Perform any service for any compensation for any person or business after termination of his office or employment is relation to any case, decision, proceeding or application with respect to which he was directly concerned or in which he personally participated during the period of his service or employment.”

Pertinent facts and circumstances provided by the requestor, absent identifying data, are set forth as follows and considered a part of this opinion.
 

I am a former deputy sheriff with the County.  I resigned my position in January 2002 and became self-employed.  During the course of my employment with the Sheriffs Department, I served as Officer in Charge of the County’s Motor Carrier Unit.  This unit was fully funded by the United States Department of Transportation.  The grant that funded this unit was written and submitted by me at the direction of the Sheriff.  Although I physically wrote the grant, the grant was one that was offered to all 50 states and has been implemented in almost all of those states.  The grant for the Sheriffs Department was the only grant to fully fund a local agency; however, the same grant fully funds almost all state agencies participating in the grant program.

May 1, 2002, I opened a new company, in City, Mississippi.  This new company offers public safety supplies to law enforcement agencies, fire departments, medical companies, and security agencies.

Because of my prior employment with the Sheriffs Department, I would like to know if there is a law that would prohibit me from selling my products to any division of the County, in particular, the Sheriffs Department.

Based solely on the facts and circumstances presented by the requestor, the Commission’s opinion is as follows.

 
The one-year period set forth in Constitutional Section 109 and Code Section 25-4-105(2), both cited above, are applicable only to the members of the county’s governing body, i.e., the board of supervisors. Therefore, the one-year trailer language in Constitutional Section 109 and Code Section 25-4-105(2) is not applicable to the requestor’s former service as a deputy sheriff.

The conflict of interest laws do not as such prohibit a former public servant of a  governmental entity who was not a board member of the governmental entity, upon his or her termination, from contracting with his or her  governmental entity nor do the conflict of interest laws impose a waiting period before such a contract may occur.  Therefore, it is not as such a violation of the conflict of interest laws for a former deputy sheriff to immediately contract with the county upon his or her termination from the county.

Notwithstanding the above, the requestor is referred to the above cited Code Section 25-4-105(3)(e) in regard to the requestor contracting with the county to sell supplies with respect to any instance in which he was directly concerned or has personally participated in while employed by the county.

Specifically, Code Section 25-4-105(3)(e) prohibits a former public servant from performing any service for any compensation for any person or business after termination of his public employment in relation to any case, decision, proceeding or application with respect to which he was directly concerned or in which he personally participated during the period of his public employment, i.e., in this instance, the employee’s employment with the county. [Emphasis added to bold text]

Code Section 25-4-105(3)(e), though not prohibiting the requestor as a former county employee from providing supplies to the county, does prohibit the requestor as a former county employee from being compensated by any person or business in relation to any case, decision, proceeding or application with respect to which the former county employee was directly concerned or in which he personally participated during the period of his employment with the county.

Therefore, the former deputy sheriff’s business is prohibited from selling supplies to the county that are purchased from funds provided by the grant he was instrumental in writing for the county while employed as a deputy sheriff.

The requestor is advised that the prohibition imposed by Code Section 25-4-105(3)(e) is not restricted or limited to a specific time period.
 
 
 

Scott Rankin
Executive Director