CEO 77-65 -- April 21, 1977

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

MEMBER OF COMMISSION APPLYING FOR GRANT FROM COMMISSION

To: (Name withheld at the person's request.)

Prepared by: Phil Claypool

SUMMARY:

A public officer is prohibited, pursuant to s. 112.313(7)(a), F. S. 1975, from having employment or a contractual relationship with an agency which is doing business with his agency. Thus, a prohibited conflict of interest would be created were a grant to be extended by the Florida Bicentennial Commission to a state university to allow a professor at that institution who also serves as a member of the commission to edit and prepare for publication a guidebook on historical preservation, as the commission (his agency) would be doing business with the university (his agency and employer). The same rationale would apply were the commissioner/professor to participate in a project of the university's which is funded by the commission.

QUESTIONS:

1. Would a prohibited conflict of interest exist where a grant to be extended by the Florida Bicentennial Commission to the University of Florida to allow me, a member of the commission and professor of architecture at the university, to edit and prepare for publication the manuscript of a guidebook on historical preservation?

2. Would a prohibited conflict of interest exist were I, a member of the Florida Bicentennial Commission and professor of architecture at the University of Florida, to participate in a project of the university's department of architecture which is funded by the commission?

Question 1 is answered in the affirmative.

In your letter of inquiry you have stated that you are a member of the Florida Bicentennial Commission and a professor of architecture at the University of Florida. You also have stated that you have submitted an application to the Florida Bicentennial Commission for a grant of $19,000 to support the editing and publication of a guidebook on historical preservation. The funds, which will be administered by the Sponsored Research Division of the University of Florida, will be used for salary support for a substitute faculty member for yourself in order to free you part time from faculty responsibilities in order to edit and prepare the manuscript for publication. The grant also will subsidize graduate assistant aid and production costs. When published, the guidebook will not be sold but will be distributed by the Florida Department of Education to schools that establish courses in historic preservation. You will receive no payment or royalties from its distribution.

The Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees 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 is doing business with, an agency of which he is an officer or employee . . . ; nor shall an officer or employee of an agency have or hold any employment or contractual relationship that will create a continuing or frequently recurring conflict between his private interests and the performance of his public duties or that would impede the full and faithful discharge of his public duties. [Section 112.313(7)(a), F. S. 1975.]

A public officer thus is prohibited from having employment or a contractual relationship with an agency which is doing business with his agency.

As a member of the Florida Bicentennial Commission, the commission is your agency; as a professor at the University of Florida, you are also an employee of that agency. Section 112.312(2), F. S. (1976 Supp.). In a prior opinion, CEO 75-4, we determined that a business entity was doing business with an agency when that agency extended a grant to that particular business entity. Similarly, here we are of the view that, by extending a grant to the University of Florida, the Florida Bicentennial Commission would be doing business with the university.

Accordingly, we find that the Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees would be violated were a grant from the Florida Bicentennial Commission, of which you are a member, to be extended to the University of Florida to allow you to edit and prepare for publication the manuscript of a guidebook on historical preservation.

Question 2 is answered in the affirmative.

In your letter of inquiry you have stated that the Department of Architecture of the University of Florida has been invited to submit a request for a grant from the Florida Bicentennial Commission to prepare conventional measured drawings and photogrammetric documentation of the old Capitol Building. The project would be conducted in liaison with staff from Miami-Dade Community College. You also have stated that as you are one of the few professional people in the state with experience in the techniques involved in those processes, you are the logical person to direct the survey. The grant would be administered by the University of Florida Division of Sponsored Research and you will receive no salary payment or other emolument, although you would receive reimbursement for expenses.

For the same reasons as were stated in our answer to your first question, above, we find that you would have employment or a contractual relationship with an agency (the University of Florida) doing business with your agency (the Bicentennial Commission) in violation of s. 112.313(7)(a) of the Code of Ethics.