This Advisory Opinion concerns the following issue as formulated from facts and/or circumstances furnished by a requestor. The Commission approved this opinion on August 2, 1996, basing its approval solely on the facts and circumstances stated herein.
May a wrecker service that has a fireman as its major shareholder and as an employee provide towing services to and be paid for those services by the municipality that employs the fireman?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:
"(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.
(f) 'Contract' means:
(i) Any agreement to which the government is a party; or
Pertinent facts and circumstances in the form of the requestor's letter, absent identifying data, are attached and considered a part of this opinion.(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.(k) 'Material financial interest' means a personal and pecuniary interest, direct or indirect, accruing to a public servant or spouse, either individually or in combination with each other. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the following shall not be deemed to be a material financial interest with respect to a business with which a public servant may be associated:
(i) Ownership of any interest of less than ten percent (10%) in a business where the aggregate annual net income to the public servant therefrom is less than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00);(ii) Ownership of any interest of less than two percent (2%) in a business where the aggregate annual net income to the public servant therefrom is less than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00).(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."
Based solely on the facts anc circumstances presented by the requestor, the Commission's opinions as follows.
Code Section 25-4-105(3)(a), cited above, prohibits the wrecker service that has the municipality's fireman as its majority shareholder and as an employee from providing towing services to and being paid for those services by the municipality.
Ronald E. Crowe Executive Director