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 December 1, 1995.

May a legislator at the end of his term accept employment with a water management district that received federal funds through a state appropriation passed by the legislature during the legislator's term?

         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 governmental entity are not addressed by this opinion.

         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 25-4-105(2) states:

"(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."

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

Would you please investigate to determine if it would be a conflict of interest for me to serve as Executive Director of the Water Management District upon my retirement from the Senate.

         In addition to the facts and circumstances provided by the requestor, the following information is relevant to this request.

         The Mississippi General Laws state, "This water management district shall be an agency of the state and a body politic and corporate." Furthermore, the Mississippi Legislature has authorized the spending of special funds by this water management district during the last four (4) years in excess of $5,500,000.

         The Commission formally adopts Advisory Opinions No. 94-070-E and No. 91-127-E in response to this request and by attachment incorporates them into this opinion.

         Based solely on the facts and circumstances presented herein, the Commission's opinion is that the requestor/legislator's acceptance of employment with the water management district within one (1) year of the end of the requestor's legislative term is prohibited by the above cited Constitutional Section 109 and Code Section 25-4-105(2).

         As stated in the attached opinions, the Mississippi Supreme Court held in both, Cassibry v. State, 404 So. 2d 1360 (Miss. 1981), and Frazierv. State, 504 So. 2d 675 (Miss. 1987), that passage of appropriation bills authorizing expenditures for state agencies or other public entities are necessary before state agencies or other public entities can obligate the State and therefore are authorizations subject to Constitution Section 109.
 

 

Ronald E. Crowe Executive Director