OFFICIAL ADVISORY OPINION NO. 96-142-E
 
December 6, 1996
This Advisory Opinion concerns the following issue as formulated from facts and/or circumstances furnished by a requestor. The Commission approved this opinion on December 6, 1996, basing its approval solely on the facts and circumstances stated herein.
May a municipal board member tape record the police chief's report on the police department's activities that the chief gives at each regular municipal board meeting?
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:

"(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.
(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."

Pertinent facts and circumstances in the form of the requestor's letter, absent identifying data, are attached hereto and considered a part of this opinion.

Based solely on the facts and circumstances presented by the requestor, the Commission's opinion is that the state conflict of interest laws do not prohibit a municipal board member from tape recording any portion of a public meeting of the municipal governing authority, including the police chief's report on police department activities. [Emphasis Added]

The requestor should contact the State Attorney General's office to learn how the Open Meetings laws, Sections 25-4101 et seq., 1972 Mississippi Code Annotated, may affect this issue.

Ronald E. Crowe Executive Director