Mississippi Advisory Opinions September 23, 1985: AGO 000009146 (September 23, 1985)

AGO 000009146.

Dear Mayor Grantham:

Attorney General Edwin Lloyd Pittman has received your letter of request and has assigned it to me for research and reply.

Your letter states:

"In the June 1985, general election a candidate was elected to the position of alderman and his father is presently employed by the municipality, part-time, since November 1984.

"In your opinion, since the father was employed prior to the June 1985 election, will he be able to continue working for the municipality Also would it be lawful for him to go on a full time basis?"

Mississippi Code Annotated 25-1-53 (Supp. 1984) provides:

"It shall be unlawful for any person elected, appointed or selected in any manner whatsoever to any state, county, district or municipal office, or for any board of trustees of any state institution to appoint or employ, as an officer, clerk, stenographer, deputy or assistant who is to be paid out of the public funds, any person related by blood or marriage within the third degree, computed by the rule of the civil law, to the person or any member of the board of trustees having the authority to make such appointment, or contract such employment as employer.

This section shall not apply to any employee who shall have been in said department or institution prior to the time his or her kinsman, within the third degree, became the head of said department or institution or member of said board of trustees. The provision herein contained shall not apply in the instance of the employment of physicians, nurses or medical technicians by governing boards of charity hospitals or other public hospitals"

In a telephone conversation on October 10, 1985, we were informed that the employee in question is employed by the Town as a laborer.

Since the position in question is not that of "officer, clerk, stenographer, deputy, or assistant" the prohibitions of the above quoted statute would not apply. Therefore, the employee in question may lawfully work on a full-time basis.

An official opinion on whether such elevation might be contrary to our conflict of interest laws must come from the State Ethics Commission. Copies of your letter and this opinion will be forwarded to said commission for its consideration and response.

Very truly yours,

EDWIN LLOYD PITTMAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL

BY: Phillip C. Carter Special Assistant Attorney General

PCC:mfd cc: State Ethics Commission