CEO 80-53 -- September 19, 1980

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

STATE-EMPLOYED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER TEACHING ADULT EDUCATION COURSE FOR LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

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

Prepared by: Phil Claypool

SUMMARY:

No prohibited conflict of interest is created when a clinical social worker for the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services at an adolescent learning center sponsored by the department and the local school board is employed by the school district to teach an adult education course. Although s. 112.313(7)(a), F. S., prohibits a public employee from being employed by another governmental agency which is doing business with his agency, the joint sponsorship of the learning center is not deemed to constitute "doing business" within the contemplation of the statute. See CEO 80-5. Nor does the employment as an instructor present a continuing or frequently recurring conflict of interest, or a conflict which would impede the full and faithful discharge of public duty, as further prohibited by s. 112.313(7)(a), based primarily on the fact that the employee's responsibilities to the department do not include any authority over the terms of the agreement between the department and the school board.

QUESTION:

Is a prohibited conflict of interest created when I, a clinical social worker for the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services at an adolescent learning center sponsored by the department and the local school board, am employed by the school district to teach an adult education course?

Your question is answered in the negative.

In your letter of inquiry you write that you are employed by the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (D.H.R.S.) as a clinical social worker with an adolescent learning center. You also write that you are teaching an evening course for the Adult Education Division of the Broward County School System.

In a telephone conversation with our staff, you advised that the adolescent learning center is an interdisciplinary program created by an agreement between the school board and D.H.R.S. District 10 to provide education and treatment for severely disturbed adolescents. The agreement generally provides that the department is responsible for providing for the therapeutic needs of the students, for example, by providing psychologists and social workers. The school board, on the other hand, is responsible for providing for the educational needs of the students, which include furnishing teaching personnel for the program.

As a clinical social worker in this program, you advised, you are employed and supervised as part of the staff of the South Florida State Hospital, with responsibility for intakes, home visits, and group and individual therapy. In your employment with the school board, you advised, you teach behavioral dynamics to adults in a course which is open to the general public.

The Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees provides 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.]

The first part of this provision prohibits a public employee from being employed by another governmental agency which is doing business with his agency. However, we do not find that your agency is "doing business with" the school board within the contemplation of this statute. In a previous opinion, CEO 80-5, we advised that a similar agreement between another school board and D.H.R.S. did not indicate that the two agencies were doing business with each other. Nor do we find that your employment as an instructor would present a continuing or frequently recurring conflict of interest or would impede the full and faithful discharge of your duties as a clinical social worker in violation of the second part of s. 112.313(7)(a). As you have observed in your letter of inquiry, there is no conflict in the hours to be worked in both positions or in the nature of your duties. Equally important is the fact that your responsibilities to the department do not include any authority over the terms of the agreement between the department and the school board.

Accordingly, we find that no prohibited conflict of interest is created by your teaching an adult education course for the Broward County School Board while being employed as a clinical social worker in the adolescent learning center for the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.