CEO 88-50 -- July 28, 1988

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT DIRECTOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL

CONTRACTING TO PROVIDE SERVICES TO HOSPITALS IN OTHER COUNTIES

To: Mr. Ray Dielman, Director, Division of Environmental Control, Pinellas County Health Department (Clearwater)

SUMMARY:

No prohibited conflict of interest exists where a public health physicist supervisor and director of environmental control for a county health department has contracted to provide nuclear medicine and radiology consulting services to hospitals located in other counties of the state, where the contracts are being fulfilled by a partner. Although Section 112.313(7), Florida Statutes, prohibits a public employee from having a contractual relationship with a business entity which is subject to the regulation of his agency, here none of the hospitals are regulated by the county health department.

QUESTION:

Does a prohibited conflict of interest exist where you, a public health physicist supervisor and director of environmental control for a county health department, have contracted to provide nuclear medicine and radiology consulting services to hospitals located in other counties of the state, where those contracts are being fulfilled by a partner in your business?

Your question is answered in the negative.

In your letter of inquiry and a telephone conversation with our staff you have advised that you are employed as Director of Environmental Control and Public Health Physicist Supervisor in the Pinellas County Health Department. You also advise that Pinellas County is one of three counties in the State which have contracted with the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (H.R.S.) Office of Radiation Control to conduct a program which enforces H.R.S. regulations concerning radiological health. In your position with the Health Department you are responsible for enforcing within the County H.R.S. regulations on radiation, on nursing homes, on emergency medical systems, and on hazardous materials.

You also have advised that before your employment with the Health Department you began a private practice of consulting in the area of health physics within Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties. As part of those activities you contracted with three hospitals to provide nuclear medicine and radiology consulting services. Shortly after your employment with the Health Department another health physicist joined you as a partner. Your partner currently provides all services required under the three contracts and receives all net revenues under the contracts. Therefore, although the contracts will continue in your name until they expire in 1989, you do not actively participate in fulfilling their obligations. You advise that the nuclear medicine and radiology activities of the hospitals are regulated by area offices of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services and are not regulated by the Health Department for which you work.

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), Florida Statutes (1987).]

This provision prohibits a public employee from having any contractual relationship with a business entity which is subject to the regulation of his agency and prohibits a public employee from having a contractual relationship that would create a continuing or frequently recurring conflict of interest or impede the full and faithful discharge of his public duties.

As a Health Department employee, your "agency" for purposes of this provision is the County Health Department. See CEO 84-27 and CEO 85-32. Clearly, however, the hospitals with which you have contracts are not subject to the regulation of the County Health Department. Nor do we find any other circumstances present which would give rise to a continuing or frequently recurring conflict of interest or which would impede the full and faithful discharge of your public duties.

Accordingly, we find that no prohibited conflict of interest exists where you have contracted to provide nuclear medicine and radiology consulting services to hospitals located outside the jurisdiction of the County Health Department for which you work, where those contracts are being fulfilled by a partner in your business.