CEO 83-32 -- June 16, 1983

VOTING CONFLICT OF INTEREST

CITY COUNCIL MEMBER VOTING ON MATTER OF CONCERN TO NONPROFIT CORPORATION OF WHICH MEMBER IS TRUSTEE

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

SUMMARY:

No voting conflict of interest would be created under Section 112.3143, Florida Statutes, were a city council member to vote on site selection or committing city property for use as a cultural arts center, where the member serves on the board of trustees of a nonprofit corporation requesting the city to use public lands for that purpose. Under the circumstances, the measure presented would not inure to the benefit of the council member or of any principal by whom he is retained. CEO 79-66 is referenced.

QUESTION:

Would a voting conflict of interest be created were a city council member to vote on site selection or committing city property for use as a cultural arts center, where the member serves on the board of trustees of a nonprofit corporation requesting the city to use public land for that purpose?

Your question is answered in the negative.

In your letter of inquiry you advise that Ms. Rae Carrole Armstrong and Mr. Larry A. Freilich are members of the Plantation City Council and also serve on the board of trustees of a nonprofit corporation which consists of City residents interested in developing a cultural arts facility within the City. You also advise that elected officials of the City do not appoint any of the twelve trustees of the corporation, a majority of whom are authorized to make policy decisions binding on the corporation. You question whether a voting conflict of interest would be created for these members of the City Council were the Council to consider site selection or committing City property for use as a cultural arts center, if the corporation were to ask the City to set aside or reserve public lands held in trust for the public by the City to be used for such a purpose.

The Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees provides in relevant part:

Voting conflicts. -- No public officer shall be prohibited from voting in his official capacity on any matter. However, any public officer voting in his official capacity upon any measure in which he has a personal, private, or professional interest and which inures to his special private gain or the special gain of any principal by whom he is retained shall, within 15 days after the vote occurs, disclose the nature of his interest as a public record in a memorandum filed with the person responsible for recording the minutes of the meeting, who shall incorporate the memorandum in the minutes. [Section 112.3143, Florida Statutes (1981).]

This provision requires a memorandum of voting conflict to be filed if a voting official has a personal, private, or professional interest in the pending measure and if the measure inures to his special private gain or the gain of the principal by whom he is retained.

Under the circumstances you have presented, it does not appear that a decision by the City Council on site selection or committing City property for a cultural arts center would inure to the special private gain of either Council member, or to the gain of the nonprofit corporation which they serve as trustees. Although these individuals and the corporation may be said to be interested in the decision of the City Council in the sense that they are concerned with a cultural arts center, it does not appear that they or the corporation are in a position to receive any benefit if the City were to set aside or reserve public land for that purpose. Of similar effect is CEO 79-66, in which we advised that no voting conflict of interest would be created where a board of adjustment member voted on a variance request opposed by a homeowners' association of which he was president.

Accordingly, we find that no voting conflict of interest would be created requiring the filing of a memorandum of voting conflict if either of the two subject City Council members were to vote on site selection or committing City property for a cultural arts center, where each serves as trustee of a nonprofit corporation interested in developing such a facility within the city.