OFFICIAL ADVISORY OPINION NO. 96-105-E
 
September 12, 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 September 12, 1996, basing its approval solely on the facts and circumstances stated herein.
May a county tax assessor/collector serve as a waste management manager/consultant to the county board of supervisors in the county which the tax assessor/collector is elected to serve?
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:

(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:
(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.

(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 25-4-1 05(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."
Pertinent facts and circumstances provided by the requestor, absent identifying data, are set forth as follows and considered a part of this opinion.
May an elected county tax assessor/collector serve as waste management manager (or a consultant) to the county board of supervisors in the county which the tax assessor/collector is elected to serve? If so, can the tax assessor/collector be compensated by the board of supervisors in terms of a salary or a consultant fee?
Based solely on the facts and circumstances presented by the requestor, the Commission's opinion is as follows.

Code Section 25-4-105(3)(a), cited above, prohibits the county tax assessor/collector from contracting as a consultant or entering into an employment contract with the board of supervisors in the county he or she was elected to serve.

Ronald E. Crowe Executive Director