Municipal Employee Legal Opinions, 268A, section 1(g)

Legal opinions issued by the Ethics Commission pertaining to the definition of municipal employee.

• EC-COI-78-1

  May an employee of a state agency accept a position in a city department?

• EC-COI-84-2

  A full-time municipal water department employee does not violate the conflict of interest law by also serving as a part-time special police officer in the same municipality because he qualifies for an exemption under § 20.

• EC-COI-84-65

  Members of the Board of Trustees of the George Robert White Fund are not municipal employees for conflict of interest law purposes because the GRW fund is not a municipal agency for the purposes of Chapter 268A. As a charitable trust fund established to finance "important civil improvements aimed at benefitting the residents of Boston, the Fund may share certain attributes of a public entity. However, the Commission holds that the GRW Fund remains a private entity whose administration is subject to the law of trusts, as opposed to an agency or instrumentality of the City of Boston performing governmental functions whose employees are subject to the conflict of interest law.

• EC-COI-85-31

  Physicians who are members of the medical staff of a municipal hospital are municipal employees for the purposes of G.L. c. 268A because they are an integral part of the hospital's operation.

• EC-COI-87-8

  The treasurer and owner of a for profit business corporation was advised that he was a municipal employee by virtue of a contract between the corporation and a city agency.

• EC-COI-87-12

  A selectman may also hold a second elected position as an assessor.

• EC-COI-87-16

  A City Councilor who is either a potential candidate for mayor or who has an immediate family member who is a mayoral candidate may vote on the proposed pay increase for the mayor's position which would take effect after the election.

• EC-COI-89-6

  Employees of the non-profit corporation are not municipal employees by virtue of an agreement between the corporation and a municipal committee, inasmuch as the choice of corporate personnel is within the sole province of the corporation, the municipal committee has no right to override those choices or to demand the services of any specific corporate personnel, even where committee members have developed relationships with certain high-ranking individuals at the corporation. Thus, the city has not identified specific individuals to perform work under the contract.

• EC-COI-89-27

  For purposes of 268A, a municipal employee retains his municipal status during the time he is collecting workman's compensation benefits. In determining whether an employee continues to hold employment within a municipal agency, the Commission will examine the characteristics of the relationship between the employee and the agency, including: whether a previously compensated employee continues to receive compensation from the municipal agency; whether the employee continues to receive the same retirement, insurance and other benefits available to municipal employees; whether the parties have a reasonable expectation that the employee will return to his municipal position; and what actions have been taken by the parties to terminate the employment relationship.

• EC-COI-92-9

  In the absence of additional circumstances, physicians are not considered to be municipal employees under G.L. c. 268A, s. 1(g) solely because they have been granted clinical privileges by Quincy Hospital and have been appointed to the hospital's medical staff.

• EC-COI-95-1

  The executive director of a local cable access corporation is not a municipal employee under the conflict of interest law because the local cable access corporation is not a municipal agency.

• EC-COI-95-3

  Using a four-factor "advisory board" test, the Commission finds that private-sector members of the City of Boston Mayor's Special Commission on Health Care are not municipal employees for purposes of the conflict law.

• EC-COI-99-5*

  The Hampshire Council of Governments is a municipal agency for purposes of the conflict of interest law, and councilors are municipal employees of each of the Council's member municipalities.

• EC-COI-00-2

  A municipal retirement board is a municipal agency for conflict of interest law purposes, and retirement board employees are municipal employees.