Opinion

Opinion  EC-COI-80-102

Date: 10/16/1980
Organization: State Ethics Commission
Location: Boston, MA

All identifying information has been deleted from this opinion as required by Chapter 268B, section 3(g).

Table of Contents

CONFLICT OPINION NO. EC-COI-80-102

You are an attorney in private practice.  One of your clients is the School Committee.  You have been offered a position as a part-time Assistant District Attorney for County.  You ask whether you may continue to represent the school committee while serving as an Assistant District Attorney without violating the conflict-of-interest law, General Laws Chapter 268A.  The Commission concludes that you may, subject to certain restrictions.

In rendering this opinion, the Commission has relied on the facts as you have stated them and has not conducted any independent investigation of those facts.

As a part-time Assistant District Attorney, you will be a state employee.  However, since you are not an elected official and will occupy a position which permits outside employment during normal working hours, you will be a "special state employee" as that terms is defined in section l(o) (2) (a).

As a special state employee, section 4, paragraph 7 will prohibit you from receiving compensation from, or acting as the agent or attorney for, the School Committee, in relation to any particular matter1 to which the state is a party or has a direct and substantial interest and in which you have participated as a state employee, or which is or within one year has been the subject of your official. responsibility, or which is pending in the District Attorney's office once you have served on more than 60 days in any 365 day period.2  Section 6 will prohibit you from participating as an Assistant District Attorney in any particular matter in which the City has a financial interest unless you comply with the disclosure and certification provisions of that section.

You advise us that you have in the past represented the School Committee in special education appeals before the Department of Education and in litigation between the School Committee and the City and Department of Education.  Although it would not appear that the Office of the District Attorney would be involved in any aspect of those proceedings, other matters involving the School Committee or the City may come before the District Attorney's office.  The Commission cannot respond to hypothetical questions, nor can it speculate as to situations which may occur in the future.  Accordingly, should a matter arise which is of concern to you, you may seek a further opinion from the Commission.  In addition, since you are a "municipal employee" by virtue of serving as Counsel to the School Committee, see G.L. c. 268A, §l(g), any questions you may have regarding the application to you of the municipal employee provisions of the conflict-of-interest law should be addressed to the City Solicitor.  See G.L. c. 268A, §22.

1/ "Particular matter" is defined in section l(k) as "any judicial or other proceeding, application, submission, request for ruling or other determination, contract, claim, controversy, charge, accusation, arrest, decision, determination [or] finding .... "

2/ A recent amendment to section 4, Chapter 10 of the Acts of 1980, permits a state employee to hold an elective or appointive office in a city, town or district as long as the employee does not vote or act on any matter within the purview of the agency by which he or she is employed or over which he or she has official responsibility. That amendment left unchanged the provisions of section 4 relative to special state employees. EC-COI-80-72.

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