This Advisory Opinion concerns the following issue as formulated from facts and/or circumstances furnished by a requestor. The Commission approved this opinion on October 4, 2002, basing its approval solely on the facts and circumstances stated herein.
 

May the director of a county emergency medical service district simultaneously serve as the county’s coroner/medical examiner investigator if elected to that office?

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(a), (e), (f)(i)(ii), (g)(i)(v), (h) and (p)(i)(ii)(iii) states:
 

“(a) ‘Authority’ means any component unit of a governmental entity.

(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:
 

(i) Counties; and
 
(v) Any department, agency, board, commission, institution, instrumentality, or legislative or administrative body of the state, counties or municipalities created by statute, ordinance or executive order including all units that expend public funds.

(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(1), (3)(a) and (4)(h) states:
 

“(1) No public servant shall use his official position to obtain pecuniary benefit for himself other than that compensation provided for by law, or to obtain pecuniary benefit for any relative or any business with which he is associated.

(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.

(4) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (3) of this section, a public servant or his relative:
 

(h) May be employed by or receive compensation from an authority of the governmental entity other than the authority of the governmental entity of which the public servant is an officer or employee.”

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 sorry to bother you once again with this but I would much rather ask permission than have to beg forgiveness.  I have enclosed a copy of your opinion concerning my holding office of Medical Examiner Investigator of the County.  After discussion with the County Administrator, I understand that I could hold office and position as Director of a county emergency medical service as long as I “clock out” from my county emergency medical service duties while acting as  Medical Examiner.  As Director I am on call 24 hours a day seven days a week, my office hours are Monday thru Friday 8 am to 5 pm.  My thinking is if elected to the office of Medical Examiner Investigator I would have at least 3 deputes that could rotate call with me.  This would give the County better coverage as well as making sure no one would be on duty with the county emergency medical service while acting as Medical Examiner Investigator.  I would have a separate office at my residence for all paperwork, filing, and other duties of Medical Examiner Investigator.

  The Commission formally adopts Advisory Opinion No. 01-008-E in response to this request and by attachment incorporates it into this opinion.

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

 
The requestor is advised that the facts and circumstances have not changed since the requestor’s previous request, therefore, the conflict of interest laws and their application to the director of a county emergency medical service district simultaneously serving as the county coroner/medical examiner investigator addressed in the attached Advisory Opinion No. 01-008-E remain unchanged.

Based on the facts and circumstances being exactly the same for the above request and Advisory Opinion No. 01-008-E,  the Commission formally adopts Advisory Opinion No. 01-008-E in its entirety as its response to this request and by attachment incorporates it into this opinion.

However, the Commission does reiterate its position that in order to avoid a violation of the above cited Code Section 25-4-105(1) the requestor must avoid performing duties as the county coroner/medical examiner investigator while scheduled to perform his duties as the executive manager of the county emergency medical service district without taking personal leave.  The county emergency medical service district’s personnel leave policies must be applied to all district employees consistently, including the executive manager, when excusing district employees from their district job responsibilities to perform functions unrelated to the county emergency medical service district.
 
 

Scott Rankin
Executive Director