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 February 8, 1996.

May a county contract with the brother of the county's elected coroner to transport bodies for autopsies?

    The Mississippi Ethics Commission is restricted to interpreting and issuing opinions on Sections 254-101 through 254-119, 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:

Code Section 25-4-101 states:

"The legislature declares that elective and public office and employment is a public trust and any effort to realize personal gain through official conduct, other than as provided by law, or as a natural consequence of the employment or position, is a violation of that trust. Therefore, public servants shall endeavor to pursue a course of conduct which will not raise suspicion among the public that they are likely to be engaged in acts that are in violation of this trust and which will not reflect unfavorably upon the state and local governments."

Code Section 25-4-103(g)(i), (h), (p)(i)(ii)(iii) and (q) states:

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

(i) Counties.

(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.

(1)) 'Public servant' means:

(i) Any elected or appointed official of 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

(ili) 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.

(q) 'Relative' means the spouse, child or parent."

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 the elected coroner of the County, my brother who is the manager of a funeral home has had the county's contract of transporting deceased bodies to Jackson for autopsies since 1992, years before I ran for this office this past election.

The bid is up for renewal, and to cut out any confusion I would like to get a written opinion.

I don't work for or have any interest in the funeral home business, nor do I own and part in it.

    Based solely on the facts and circumstances presented by the requestor, the Commission's opinion is that the county's contracting with the funeral home owned by the brother of the county's coroner is not as such a violation of the state's conflict of interest laws as long as the coroner has absolutely no interest what so ever in the funeral home. This finding is based on a brother not being classified a "relative" as it is defined in the above cited Code Section 25-4-103(q).

    However, the issue presented by the requestor must be viewed as it relates to Code Section 25-4-101, set forth above. This code section sets the tone for the conflict of interest laws as the Legislature's "Declaration of Public Policy." This public policy can be summarized as any circumstance having the potential of creating suspicion among the public and reflecting unfavorably upon the state or local government should be closely reviewed by public servants with the intent to reduce or eliminate any suspicion on the part of the public which detracts from the public's trust in state or local government.

    The determination as to whether contracting with the funeral home of the county coroner's brother has the potential of creating suspicion among the public and would therefore reflect unfavorably upon the county is a matter which must be finally determined by the county; however, this Commission thinks that such a relationship would likely be contrary to the Legislature's "Declaration of Public Policy."
 
 
 

Ronald E. Crowe Executive Director