OFFICIAL ADVISORY OPINION NO. 05-104-E

November 4, 2005

This Advisory Opinion concerns the following issue as formulated from facts and/or circumstances furnished by a requestor. The Commission approved this opinion on November 4, 2005, basing its approval solely on the facts and circumstances stated herein.

May a deputy coroner also be employed by the sheriff?

State law restricts the Mississippi Ethics Commission to interpreting and issuing opinions on Sections 25-4-101 through 25-4-119, 1972 Mississippi Code Annotated and Article IV, Section 109, Mississippi Constitution of 1890. Therefore, this opinion does not address the Mississippi laws outside the Commission’s jurisdiction nor the governmental entity’s internal rules and regulations.

The pertinent conflict of interest laws to be considered here are:

Code Section 25-4-103(a), (e), (g)(i), (h) and (p)(i)(ii)(iii) states:

“(a) ‘Authority’ means any component unit of a governmental entity.

(e) ‘Compensation’ means money or thing of value received, or to be received, from any
person for services rendered.

(g) ‘Governmental’ means the state and all political entities thereof, both collectively and
separately, including but not limited to:

(i) Counties.

(h) ‘Governmental entity’ means the state, a county, a municipality or any other separate
political subdivision authorized by law to exercise a part of the sovereign power of the
state.

(p) ‘Public servant’ means:

(i) Any elected or appointed official of the government;

(ii) Any officer, director, commissioner, supervisor, chief, head,
agent or employee of the government or any agency thereof, or of any
public entity created by or under the laws of the State of Mississippi or
created by an agency or governmental entity thereof, any of which is
funded by public funds or which expends, authorizes or recommends the
use of public funds; or

(iii) Any individual who receives a salary, per diem or expenses paid in
whole or in part out of funds authorized to be expended by the
government.”

Code Section 25-4-105(3)(a) and (4)(h) states:

“(3) No public servant shall:

(a) Be a contractor, subcontractor or vendor with the governmental entity
of which he is a member, officer, employee or agent, other than in his
contract of employment, or have a material financial interest in any business
which is a contractor, subcontractor or vendor with the governmental
entity of which he is a member, officer, employee or agent.

(4) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (3) of this section, a public servant or his
relative:

(h) May be employed by or receive compensation from an authority of the
governmental entity other than the authority of the governmental entity of
which the public servant is an officer or employee.”

Pertinent facts and circumstances provided by the requestor, absent identifying data, are set forth as
follows and considered a part of this opinion.

Currently, I hold the position of Deputy Medical Examiner Investigator, (referred to as
DMEI) for [] County, Mississippi. I was appointed to that position by the [] County,
Mississippi Board of Supervisors during January, 2004. In my present capacity, I am paid
by the County for services rendered DMEI.

I am anticipating employment with the County Sheriff’s Department. It is my understanding
that I would be working as the Jail Administrator or Jail Officer. In this new position, I
would also be paid by the County.

I would appreciate your opinion as to whether simultaneously holding the employment of
DMEI and Jail Officer would be prohibited or violate Section 25-4-101, et seq.,
Mississippi Code of 1972, Annotated and Section 109 of the Mississippi Constitution.

The Commission formally adopts Advisory Opinions No. 01-045-E and No. 96-003-E in response
to this request and by attachment incorporates them into this opinion.

Based solely on the facts and circumstances presented by the requestor, the Commission’s opinion
is as follows.

Section 25-4-105(3)(a), Miss. Code of 1972, quoted above, prohibits a county employee from being a contractor, subcontractor or vendor to the county. That precludes a county employee from holding
a second employment position in the same authority of county government. An authority is defined as a
“component unit” of a governmental entity. Section 25-4-103. As set forth in the attached advisory
opinions, the sheriff and coroner are not separate component units of county government. They are both
part of the general county government and under the budget authority of the board of supervisors. Thus, a
violation of Section 25-4-105(3)(a) will occur if the requestor becomes employed with the sheriff’s
department while also employed by the coroner.



Scott Rankin
Executive Director