You are an employee of ABC, a regional transit authority under G.L. c. 161B, § 2. In (date omitted) you participated in a review panel that was established by the Transportation Systems Center (TSC) to assist the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) in the development and use of [certain products] in the transit industry. Your participation in the project was solicited by TSC and included the review of several TSC-produced reports and attendance on (dates omitted) of all-day workshops held at TSC in Cambridge. All your activity in this project was conducted on your own time and not on ABC time, and you were paid an honorarium of $200 and travel expenses of $40. TSC is an agency of the Department of Transportation (DOT) and is funded by DOT. DOT also funds ABC in the form of operating assistance and capital grants. ABC is involved with UMTA in a project which is studying the use of computer technology in the transit industry. This project has been ongoing for a year and will continue until [date omitted]. As an employee of ABC, you have been meeting approximately two times a month with officials from UMTA since the inception of the project and will continue to do so until the end of the study.
1. May you keep the honorarium?
2. May you keep the reimbursement for your travel expenses?
As a full-time employee of ABC you are a state employee as that term is defined in G.L. c. 268A, §1(q). See, EC-COI-81-119; 79-91 [regional transportation authorities are state agencies for the purposes of G.L. c. 268A]. Section 23 of Chapter 268A prohibits state employees from accepting other employment that will impair their independence of judgment in the exercise of their official duties, or from giving, by their conduct, reasonable basis for the impression that any person can improperly influence them or unduly enjoy their favor in the performance of those duties. It further prohibits state employees from using their official positions to secure unwarranted privileges for themselves or from pursuing a course of conduct which will raise suspicion among the public that they are likely to be engaged in violations of their trust.
On the basis of these prohibitions, the Commission concludes that you may accept honoraria for speaking engagements only if all the following requirements are met:
- State supplies or facilities not available to the general public are not used in the preparation or delivery of the address.
- State time is not taken for the preparation or delivery of the address.
- Delivering the speech is not part of your official duties.
- Neither the sponsor of the address nor the source of the honorarium, if different, is a person or entity with which you might reasonably expect to have dealings in your official capacity. (See, EC-COI-80-28, 82-74).
According to the information you have provided, you satisfy requirements (1) through (3). However, you do not satisfy requirement (4) as both TSC and UMTA are entities with which you have dealings in your official capacity as an employee of ABC. Because you do not satisfy all of the requirements for accepting honoraria, you must return the $200 to TSC. However, Chapter 268A would not preclude your accepting reimbursement from the sponsor of the address for nominal expenses actually incurred in addressing the workshop even where the requirements listed above are not met. Therefore, you may keep the $40 for reimbursement of your travel expenses.
End Of Decision
