CEO 88-34 -- June 9, 1988

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

D.H.R.S. DISTRICT INTAKE COUNSELOR SUPERVISOR

PROVIDING PARENTING CLASSES FOR PRIVATE

NONPROFIT CORPORATION CONTRACTING WITH THE DEPARTMENT

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

SUMMARY:

A prohibited conflict of interest would be created under Section 112.313(7)(a), Florida Statutes, were a Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services District Intake Counselor Supervisor to accept outside employment as a parent educator with a private nonprofit corporation which contracts with the Department. As the employee is in a position to sanction and reject referrals made to the private corporation, such employment would create a continuing or frequently recurring conflict between her private interests and the performance of her public duties. CEO's 86-63 and 87-76 are referenced.

QUESTION:

Would a prohibited conflict of interest be created under Section 112.313(7)(a), Florida Statutes, were you, a Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services District Intake Counselor Supervisor, to be employed as a parent educator by a private nonprofit corporation which contracts with the Department?

Under the circumstances presented, your question is answered in the affirmative.

In your letter of inquiry and a telephone conversation with our staff you have advised that you are employed by the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, District IV, as a District Intake Counselor Supervisor. In that position you oversee an intake unit which investigates reports of child abuse and neglect. You supervise dependency intake counselors who screen cases, detain children, and counsel families. These counselors also make referrals to various community or Department agencies for counseling intervention in cases where abuse and neglect are present. These referrals either are based on a counselor's recommendation to a family and are voluntary, or are based on the order of a court and are mandatory. In both instances, you are responsible for reviewing a counselor's referral recommendation and may sanction, modify, or reject that recommendation.

You question whether a prohibited conflict of interest would be created were you to accept outside employment instructing evening parent education classes for a private nonprofit corporation which contracts with the Department to provide various children, youth, and family counseling services including parenting classes, emergency shelter, a teen crisis center, and a limited amount of foster care.

The Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees provides:

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), Florida Statutes (1987).]

This provision prevents a public employee from having any employment relationship with a business entity which is doing business with her agency, or an employment relationship that will create a continuing or frequently recurring conflict between her private interests and the performance of her public duties or that would impede the full and faithful discharge of her public duties.

In previous opinions we have found that the Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees would not prohibit Department employees from outside employment where they played no role in any contracting process between the Department and their private employer, where their public duties were unrelated to the employer and any contract with the Department, and where they were not in a position to make referrals to the private employer. See, for example, CEO 86-63. Here, you have advised that you have no involvement with the contracting process or the contract that exists between the Department and the private nonprofit corporation. However, you advise that the counselors who are under your supervision frequently make referrals to the private nonprofit corporation. Based on the rationale of CEO 87-76, we are of the opinion that your ability to sanction or reject the counselor's referrals to the private corporation would create a continuing or frequently recurring conflict between your private interests and the performance of your public duties.

Accordingly, we find that a prohibited conflict of interest would be created were you, a D.H.R.S. District Intake Counselor Supervisor, to be employed as a parent educator by a nonprofit corporation which contracts with the Department where you supervise counselors who make referrals to the private corporation.