May a municipal police officer simultaneously serve as a constable for the county in which the municipality employing him as a police officer is located?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 entities' 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:
(i) Counties; and
(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.
(1) 'Pecuniary benefit' means benefit in the form of money, property, commercial interests or anything else the primary significance of which is economic gain. Expenses associated with social occasions afforded public servants shall not be deemed a pecuniary benefit.
(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(1) and (3)(a) states:
"(1) No public servant shall use his official position to obtain pecuniary benefit for himself other than that compensation provided for by law, or to obtain pecuniary benefit for any relative or any business with which he is associated.
(3) No public servant shall:
Pertinent facts and circumstances provided by the requestor, absent identifying data, are set forth as follows and considered a part of this opinion.(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."
I am a police officer with a municipal police department. I am requesting information concerning holding the position of police officer and serving as constable in the same county.
Would the City be liable for me while I am performing duties as constable?Based solely on the facts and circumstances presented by the requestor; the Commission's opinion is as follows.
The municipality and the county are separate governmental entities and political subdivisions for purposes of the Ethics in Government Law as set forth in the above cited Code Section 25-4- 103(g)(i)(ii) and (h).
The Ethics in Government Law does not prohibit a municipal employee, in this instance a police officer, from being an elected constable for the county in which the employing municipality is located.
Notwithstanding the above, the requestor is advised to remain keenly aware of the above cited Code Section 25--105(1). Code Section 25-4-105(1) prohibits the requestor from using his position as a police officer to benefit himself as a constable, if elected. For example, the requestor could not perform his constable duties when being paid as a municipal police officer or when using municipal police department equipment.
The requestor is advised to present his question of the municipality's liability when he is serving as a constable to the State Attorney General's Office.
Ronald E. Crowe Executive Director