| Date: | 05/15/1979 |
|---|---|
| Organization: | State Ethics Commission |
A special state employee may be simultaneously employed by the state and a private entity if there is no overlap of duties regarding "particular matters". §§4 and 7
- This page, EC-COI-79-71, is offered by
- State Ethics Commission
Opinion
Opinion EC-COI-79-71
Table of Contents
Fact(s)
You are a private citizen appointed to serve as a member of a State Board (Board).
Question
You ask whether your membership on the Board and your position as Program director for a non-profit entity (Inc.) providing educational services to persons who are regulated by the Board raise any questions under the Commonwealth's conflict of interest law, General Laws Chapter 268A.
Discussion
As a member of the Board, you are a "special state employee" as defined in § 1(o). Therefore, you are subject to the prohibitions of § 4(a) which prohibit a state employee from receiving or requesting compensation from anyone other than the Commonwealth or a state agency in relation to any particular matter in which the Commonwealth or a state agency is a party or has a direct and substantial interest. However, the seventh paragraph of § 4 limits the application of this section in the case of a special state employee. For such an employee, compensation is only prohibited in relation to particular matters,
- that the individual actually participated in as a special state employee,
- which re the subject of his official responsibility as a special state employee, or
- those which are pending before the state agency in which the employee is serving if the employee has served for more than 60 days during the past year.
You state that your duties on the Board concern particular types of decisions and proceedings. You work for Inc. concerns arrangements for the teaching programs for a number of privately funded organizations throughout the state and one in Maine. In addition, you manage another course, taught annually by faculty selected from schools in the Commonwealth. None of your responsibilities for Inc. are particular matters that are in any way related to your duties as a Board Member. Therefore, § 4 does not prohibit your simultaneous employment by the Board and Inc. In rendering this opinion, the Commission has relied on the facts as you have stated them and has not conducted any independent investigation of these facts.
End Of Decision