CEO 84-3 -- January 26, 1984

VOTING CONFLICT OF INTEREST

COUNTY COMMISSIONER WHO IS PHYSICIAN VOTING ON HEALTH CARE RELATED ISSUES

To: Dr. Steve H. Gilman, Member, Marion County Board of County Commissioners

SUMMARY:

No voting conflict of interest requiring the filing of a memorandum of voting conflict under Section 112.3143, Florida Statutes, would be created were a county commissioner who is a practicing physician to vote on hospital or health care related issues in the county. However, if the matter before the county commission were to pay the commissioner for care he had rendered to indigent patients, Section 112.3143 would require him to file a memorandum of voting conflict if he votes on the matter.

QUESTION:

Would a voting conflict of interest requiring the filing of a memorandum of voting conflict under Section 112.3143, Florida Statutes, be created were you, a county commissioner and practicing physician, to vote on hospital or health care related issues in the county?

Your question is answered generally in the negative.

In your letter of inquiry you advise that recently you were appointed to serve a one-year term as a member of the Marion County Board of County Commissioners. You also advise that you are a practicing physician who admits and cares for patients at two local hospitals and that previously you served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Marion County Hospital Tax District. Finally, you advise that you have no contractual association with either hospital or with the Hospital District. You question whether there would be a conflict of interest in your voting on any hospital or health care related issues in the County, such as appointments to the Board of Trustees of the Hospital District, approval of funding for indigent and ambulance services, and the approval of a reorganization of the governing structure of the Hospital District.

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 (1983).]

This provision does not prohibit a public officer from voting on measures which may come before him but provides that he must disclose the existence of certain conflicts of interest.

We are of the opinion that you may be said to have a professional interest, as a physician, in hospital and health care related issues which may come before the County Commission. However, it does not appear that any of the various types of issues you have raised would inure to the special gain of any principal by whom you are retained, as you have no contractual association with either hospital or with the Hospital District.

You have provided no information which would indicate that appointments to the Board of Trustees of the Hospital District, the approval of funding for ambulance services, or the approval of a reorganization of the structure of the Hospital District would inure to your special private gain. As to the approval of funding for indigent services, it does not appear that the approval of the County Commission would inure to your special private gain unless the measure being voted upon were to pay you for care you had rendered to indigent patients. If that were the case, Section 112.3143 would require you to file a memorandum of voting conflict as part of the minutes of the meeting within fifteen days of the meeting.

Accordingly, we find that as a general rule you are not presented with a voting conflict of interest under Section 112.3143, Florida Statutes, when called upon to vote on hospital or health care related issues in the County, unless the measure being considered by the Commission would result directly in payment to you for services rendered to an indigent patient.