CEO 82-23 -- April 8, 1982

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

COUNTY FIREFIGHTER EMPLOYED BY AMBULANCE SQUAD WITH FRANCHISE GRANTED BY COUNTY

To: Mr. D. B. Hahn, Jr., Director, Personnel & Employee Relations, Brevard County

SUMMARY:

No prohibited conflict of interest exists where a county firefighter is employed as a paramedic with an incorporated volunteer ambulance squad which has been granted a franchise by the county commission to provide ambulance, transport, and autopsy-assist services within an area of the county. A county firefighter is prohibited from being employed by a business entity which is subject to the regulation of or is doing business with his agency, the fire department. Here, however, the volunteer ambulance squad is subject to the regulation of and is doing business with the county commission, which granted to the squad an exclusive franchise and which provides funding to the squad. Since the firefighter's duties do not involve emergency medical services, no prohibited or frequently recurring conflict of interest would be created. Compare CEO 81-76.

QUESTION:

Does a prohibited conflict of interest exist where a county firefighter is employed as a paramedic with an incorporated volunteer ambulance squad which has been granted a franchise by the county commission to provide ambulance, transport, and autopsy-assist services within an area of the county?

Your question is answered in the negative.

In your letter of inquiry you advise that Mr. Charles W. Scholl, a firefighter for Brevard County, District 4 Fire Control, has accepted supplemental employment as a paramedic with an incorporated volunteer ambulance squad. The ambulance squad, you advise, has been granted an exclusive franchise to provide ambulance, transport, and autopsy-assist services within an area of the County. Under the agreement, the County provides funds for salaries and certain materials and communication services to the ambulance squad.

In a telephone conversation with our staff, an assistant with your office advised that by ordinance of the County Commission the County Public Safety Division has been divided into five separate Fire Departments, one for each District of the County, each headed by a Fire Chief. As a firefighter within Fire Control District 4, the subject employee is responsible for fighting fires within that District but is not responsible for performing any paramedic services or for calling the ambulance squad. Moreover, your assistant advised that Fire Control District 4 encompasses a different geographic area of the County from that served by the volunteer ambulance squad.

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.]

This provision prohibits the subject firefighter from being employed by a business entity which is subject to the regulation of or is doing business with his agency. Under the circumstances you have presented, we find that the volunteer ambulance squad is subject to the regulation of and is doing business with the County Commission, which granted to the squad its exclusive franchise and which provides funding to the squad. However, we also find that the subject firefighter's "agency" is not the County Commission, but rather is the Fire Department for Fire Control District 4.

The term "agency" is defined in Section 112.312(2), Florida Statutes, to mean "any . . . county . . . government entity of the state . . . ; any department, division, bureau . . . therein . . . " As the subject firefighter works for the Fire Department for Fire Control District 4, which is one of five Fire Departments established by the County Commission within the Public Safety Division, that particular Fire Department is his "agency."

Since the Fire Department for Fire Control District 4 does not regulate or do business with the ambulance squad, the first portion of Section 112.313(7)(a) would not be violated by his employment with the squad. Nor do we find that his employment would create a continuing or frequently recurring conflict of interest or would impede the full and faithful discharge of his duties as a firefighter, since his duties as a firefighter do not involve emergency medical services. By way of contrast, see CEO 81-76, in which we advised that a member of a rescue unit of a city fire protection division could not own a private ambulance service, since he would be in a position to make referrals to his private ambulance service on a frequently recurring basis.

Accordingly, we find that no prohibited conflict of interest exists where the subject firefighter is employed as a paramedic with an incorporated volunteer ambulance squad which has been granted a franchise by the County Commission.