CEO 75-185 -- October 1, 1975

CONFLICTING EMPLOYMENT

COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRUSTEE ACCEPTING EMPLOYMENT AS INSTRUCTOR

To: John D. McElheny, Legal Counsel, Valencia Community College, Orlando

Prepared by: Gene Rhodes

SUMMARY:

Section 112.313(7), F. S., as created by Ch. 75-208, Laws of Florida, provides that no public officer or employee may hold any employment or contractual relationship with any business entity or agency which is subject to the regulation of or doing business with his own agency. Consequently, a member of a community college board of trustees may not concurrently be employed as a teacher by the college on whose board he sits inasmuch as community colleges are subject to the regulation of their boards of trustees.

QUESTION:

Does the recently revised Code of Ethics for Public Officers, Employees and Candidates prohibit a community college trustee from accepting employment as an instructor with that college?

Your question is answered in the affirmative.

The revised Code of Ethics states in relevant part:

CONFLICTING EMPLOYMENT OR CONTRACTUAL RELATIONSHIP. -- No public officer or employee of an agency shall have or hold any employment or contractual relationship with any business entity or any agency which is subject to the regulation of, or doing business with, an agency of which he is an officer or employee . . . . [Section 112.313(7), F. S., as created by Ch. 75-208, Laws of Florida.]

Community college trustees are public officers pursuant to s. 112.312(7)(d), F. S. (1974 Supp.).

Community colleges are subject to the regulation of their boards of trustees. It is therefore our view that s. 112.313(7) prohibits a community college trustee from accepting employment as an instructor with the college on whose board of trustees he serves as a member.

Further, s. 112.313(10) of the revised standards of conduct provides as follows:

EMPLOYEES HOLDING OFFICE. -- No employee of a state agency or of a county, municipality, special taxing district, or other political subdivision of the state shall hold office as a member of the governing board, council, commission, or authority, by whatever name known, which is his employer while, at the same time, continuing as an employee of such employer. [Section 112.313(10), F. S., as created by Ch. 75-208, Laws of Florida.]

Section 230.753(2)(a), F. S. 1973, provides that the Board of Trustees of Valencia Community College serve as the college's governing board. Accordingly, the newly enacted provision quoted above would prohibit any trustee from concurrently being employed by the college. The only trustees not subject to the revised statutes are those -- if there be any -- who were employed by the college on October 1, 1975, the date on which the new provision went into effect. See s. 11, Ch. 75-208, Laws of Florida.