Opinion  EC-COI-80-72

Date:	07/30/1980
Organization:	State Ethics Commission
Location:	Boston, MA

A part-time employee of the Department of Education may also serve on a city school committee subject to § 4 of the conflict of interest law.

Introduction

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

You are a part-time employee of the Department of Education (Department). You ask whether, consistent with the conflict of interest law, General Laws Chapter 268A, you may also serve on City A's School Committee.

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

Discussion

At the Department employee, you "work with the City B Public Schools in relation to planning for career and vocational education opportunities, (and) with community groups and parent organizations in relation to determination of needs and strategies for recruitment of a designated enrollment for each program"; you "advise the Department about the use of resources to support such efforts”.

In your part-time capacity with the Department, you are a special state employee as that term is defined in G.L. c. 268A, §l(o). As such, you may not receive compensation from,^[1] or act in a representative capacity on behalf of, City A in relation to a particular matter a) in which you participated as a state employee, b) which is or within a year has been a subject of your official responsibility, or c) which is pending in the Department of Education. See G.L. c. 268A, §4. Clause c) would not apply in the case of a special state employee who serves less than 60 days in any 365-day period. Since it appears from the materials you furnished the Commission that you have served more than 60 days, clause c) would apply to you.

Since your only area of responsibility at the Department relates to City B, the restrictions imposed by clauses a) and b) above may not be as relevant to you as that imposed by clause c). In other words, you must not act as a school committee member on behalf of City A in relation to any particular matter which is pending in the Department of Education. There may be matters which come before the City A School committee which are pending in the Department. See G.L. c. 15, §lG. The Commission cannot give you advice hypothetically. If a particular matter comes up about which you have a question, you may seek a further opinion.^[2]

 

End of Opinion

[1] It is realized that at this point in time, City A does not pay its school committee members.

[2] In your letter, you referred to the recent amendment to §4 which states that a state employee may hold 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 §4 relative to special state employees.