Opinion  EC-COI-79-28

Date:	02/21/1979
Organization:	State Ethics Commission

Because a state employee was not a "trustee" of a public institution of higher education, the prohibitions of §23(a) do not apply to an appointment to a specific educational position.

Discussion

You resigned from a state agency to accept an appointment with another state agency.  You ask whether your appointment violates any provisions of General Laws Chapter 268A.

Sections 4 and 5 are directed toward present or former state employees serving "anyone other than the Commonwealth", they do not apply to your situation and only § 23A is relevant. That section prohibits a trustee of any public institution of higher education from holding any office with said institution for a period of three years after she terminates her services as trustee.

The agency is an agency within the Executive Office of Educational Affairs, and, in that position, you were a "special state employee" as that term is defined in § 1(o). The agency functions as a coordinating council on matters of higher education in the state's higher educational institutions. The duties include budget recommendations, legislative review and approval of new higher educational programs.  The agency functions as a coordinating council and does not govern any single state higher educational institution. The public community colleges and the state universities each have their own governing board, the members of which are trustees of individual state educational institutions. See General Laws Chapter 15, § 1A.

We conclude that as a state employee, you were not a trustee of a public institution of higher education. Therefore, the prohibitions of § 23A do not apply to your present appointment.  

 

End Of Decision