This Advisory Opinion concerns the following issue as formulated from facts and/or circumstances furnished by a requestor. The opinion is based solely on the facts and circumstances as stated below and was approved by the Commission on August 25,1995.

May a former staff attorney for a state agency represent a company in negotiations with local governments when as the state agency's staff attorney he or she was involved in the state agency's permitting process involving the company?

    The Mississippi Ethics Commission is restricted 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, Mississippi laws outside the jurisdiction of the Commission and internal rules and regulations of the state governmental entity are not addressed by this opinion.

The pertinent conflict of interest laws to be considered here are:

Code Section 25-4-103(c), (e), (g)(v), (h) and (p)(i)(ii)(iii) states:
"(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 non-profit corporation or other such entity, association or organization receiving public funds. 

(e) 'Compensation' mean money or thing of value received, or to be received, from any person for services rendered.

(g) 'Government' means the state and all political entities thereof both collectively and separately, including but not limited to:

(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, direct or indirect, 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

(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)(e) states:

"(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 in the form of the requestor's letter dated August 8, 1995, are attached and considered a part of this opinion.

    Based solely on the facts and circumstances provided by the requestor, the Commission's opinion is that the former staff attorney's representation of Company B in negotiations with local governments for the purpose of securing contracts pertaining to the subject site is not prohibited by the above cited Code Section 25-4-105(3)(e).

    Notwithstanding the above, the requestor is prohibited by Code Section 25-4-105(3)(e) from representing Company B in the litigation and permitting process concerning this particular site which originated during the requestor's employment as the state agency's staff attorney.
 
 

Ronald E. Crowe Executive Director