CEO 86-8 -- January 9, 1986

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

CITY TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT DIVISION CHIEF FORMING BUSINESS TO CONSULT WITH OTHER AGENCIES REGARDING JOB TRAINING

To: (Name withheld at the persons's request.)

SUMMARY:

No prohibited conflict of interest would be created were the chief of a city's training and development division, which is responsible for administering the Job Training Partnership Act funds received by the city, to establish a private business which would offer services regarding the Job Training Partnership Act to agencies outside the service delivery area of the city. CEO 80-83 is referenced.

QUESTION:

Would a prohibited conflict of interest be created were you, the chief of a city's training and development division, which is responsible for administering the Job Training Partnership Act funds received by the city, to establish a private business which would offer services regarding the Job Training Partnership Act to agencies outside the service delivery area of the city?

Your question is answered in the negative.

In your letter of inquiry you advise that you have been appointed to serve as the Chief of the Training and Development Division, Human Services Department, of the City of Jacksonville and that you serve as the Executive Director for the Private Industry Council in that City. The City serves as the grant recipient for funds under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) and the Training and Development Division administers those funds for the City.

In your position you are responsible for the overall administration of the JTPA program for the City, which constitutes a service delivery area, and for the overall operations of all JTPA programs in the City. Your duties include planning, evaluation, grant development and submission, and recommending policies and strategies, as well as administrative matters such as fiscal record- keeping and reporting.

You also advise that you are contemplating the establishment of a business which would offer, among other professional services, services for JTPA monitoring and evaluation, grant development for JTPA funds, and grant administration for JTPA funds. You also may operate on a subcontracted basis programs for a particular service delivery area. You anticipate that these services would be provided to small service delivery areas, which due to restraints on administrative funding under the JTPA would be unable to adequately staff their operations with the necessary level of professional expertise to provide for the proper administration of JTPA funds. Finally, you advise that you will not offer any of these services to agencies operating within the City or to any agency applying for funds in the City.

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 (1985).]

In a previous opinion, CEO 80-83, we advised that the Code of Ethics would not prohibit the director of a county CETA department from privately consulting with CETA agencies outside that county. Based on the rationale of that opinion and on your representation that you will not offer any services to agencies operating within the City or to agencies applying for funds in the City, we conclude that Section 112.313(7), Florida Statutes, would not prohibit you from engaging in the type of business which you contemplate.

Accordingly, we find that no prohibited conflict of interest would be created were you to establish a private business which would offer services to agencies outside the City pertaining to the Job Training Partnership Act while being employed as Chief of the Training and Development Division.