Ethics
Advisory Opinion No. 27
June
21, 1999
Issued
By: City Attorney’s Office
Whether a City employee may submit a proposal to perform work for a company under contract with VIA Metropolitan Transit.
An employee in a City Department has asked
whether he may submit a proposal to perform work for a company under contract
with VIA Metropolitan Transit. The following facts are presented:
An employee in a City Department has
responsibilities that include, but are not limited to, administering the
City’s voice communications system and radio maintenance operation, such
as planning, budgeting and overseeing the division’s daily operations.
The employee is interested in submitting a proposal to ABC Company ("ABC")
to modify mobile and portable radios to be used in conjunction with the GPS/AVL
system for the VIA Metropolitan Transit’s radio system.
The issue is whether the employee may submit
such a proposal given his position with the City. Under the Ethics Code of the
City of
Improper Economic Benefit. As a general rule, a City employee may not take any
official action that he knows is likely to have an effect on, among others, his
economic interest or the economic interest of his outside employer that is
distinguishable from the effect on the public in general. Should such occur,
the City employee is required to recuse himself immediately, refraining from
any further participation in the matter, and disclose in writing to the
City Clerk the economic benefit.
It does not appear from the facts presented
that an economic benefit would be bestowed on ABC as it is not currently doing
business with the City. However, one of the job functions of the
employee’s position is to review all bids on communicating equipment.
Therefore, if ABC proposes to do business with the City for which the employee
is required to take official action, he must recuse himself immediately and
disclose in writing to the City Clerk the conflict. Moreover, he must notify
his supervisor immediately of the conflict. The supervisor may, if necessary,
reassign the responsibility to another employee.
Conflicting Outside Employment. Generally, a City employee may not engage in
outside employment, which may influence the performance of the employee’s
official duties. More specifically, "a City ... employee shall not
provide services to an outside employer related to the . . . employee’s
City duties." The essential job functions of the employee’s
position include, among others, supervising the engineering, installation,
operation and maintenance of radio communication networks. Modifying radio
equipment, as proposed by the employee, is not an essential job function of
this position. Therefore, as long as the services the employee provides to ABC
are not related to his duties in his position with the City, there is no
violation of this standard of conduct. He must, however, comply with
Administrative Directive 4.47 that requires the employee to obtain written
approval from the Department Director prior to engaging in outside employment.
Public Property and Resources. Section 7[1]
prohibits City employees from using "City facilities, personnel,
equipment or supplies for private purposes." The employee has stated
that he will not use City equipment or perform said work on City time. Provided
he complies with this standard of conduct, there should be no violation of this
section.
Unfair Advancement of Private Interests. Part B. Section 2[2]
of the Code prohibits all City employees from using their position "to
unfairly advance or impede private interests, or to grant or secure, or attempt
to grant or secure, for any person (including himself [ ]) any form of special
consideration, treatment, exemption, or advantage beyond that which is lawfully
available to other persons." Therefore, the employee must not use his
position to advance the interests of ABC should it decide to pursue business
contracts with the City. Failure to abide by this standard of conduct is a
violation of the Code and subject to the penalties therein.
Confidential Information. All City employees are prohibited from using their
position to obtain confidential information for purposes other than the
performance of their duties and/or from intentionally or knowingly disclosing
such information gained as a result of their position. Therefore, the employee
must not divulge information confidential in nature, resulting from his
position with the City.
SUMMARY
City employees are governed by the standards
of conduct as set forth in the Ethics Code of the City of
FRANK J. GARZA
City Attorney