Advisory Opinion No. 2007-25 Advisory Opinion No. 2007-25 Re: The Honorable Grace Diaz QUESTION PRESENTED The petitioner, a state legislator serving in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, a state elected position, requests an advisory opinion regarding whether she may accept consulting work with a non-profit organization that has previously received, and may continue to receive, funding through a community service grant in the state budget. RESPONSE It is the opinion of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission that the petitioner, a state legislator serving in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, a state elected position, may accept consulting work with a non-profit organization that has previously received, and may continue to receive, funding through a community service grant in the state budget. The petitioner is a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives (“the House”). She informs that until recently she has operated a home day care business. She states that since closing this business some months ago, she has been pursuing employment opportunities in the child care field. She informs that she was recently offered employment, after a competitive hiring process, to work as a literacy consultant in the Ready to Learn program offered by The Providence Plan, a private, non-profit organization with a mission to improve the economic and social well-being of City of Providence residents. The petitioner states that she recently learned that within the annual state budget for fiscal years 2005 and 2006 were community service grants of approximately $10,000 for the Ready to Learn program. The petitioner notes that she had no role in the award of these grants other than her voting on the overall state budget in years past, and represents that going forward she will take no action whatsoever to help continue or increase the grant. Finally, the petitioner states that it is possible that future state budgets will include the same or similar community service grants to the program but that, again, she will have no role in the continuation or review of such grants other than through her vote, if permitted, on the overall state budget. Given all of these representations, the petitioner asks whether the Code of Ethics prohibits her accepting employment as a literacy consultant for the Ready to Learn program. If she is permitted to accept the position, she further asks whether she will be permitted to vote on future state budgets that may contain a community service grant earmarked for the program. The Code of Ethics prohibits a person subject to the Code from having any interest or engaging in any business or employment which is "in substantial conflict with the proper discharge of his or her duties" in the public interest and of his or her responsibilities as prescribed in the laws of this state. See R.I. Gen. Laws § 36-14-5(a). Section 7(a) of the Code clarifies the language of section 5(a) by providing that an official will have an interest which is "in substantial conflict with the proper discharge of his or her duties," as prohibited in section 5(a), if he or she has reason to believe or expect that he or she, a family member, employer or business associate will derive a direct monetary gain or suffer a direct monetary loss by reason of his or her official activity. See R.I. Gen. Laws § 36-14-7(a). A "business associate" is an individual or business entity joined together with another individual or business entity to achieve a common financial objective. See R.I. Gen. Laws § 36-14-2(3); 36-14-2(7). Section 5(b) of the Code of Ethics prohibits a person subject to the Code from accepting other employment that will impair his or her independence of judgment as to his or her official duties or require or induce him or her to disclose confidential information acquired in the course of his or her official duties. See R.I. Gen. Laws § 36-14-5(b). Section 5(c) of the Code prohibits a person subject to the Code from disclosing or using, for pecuniary gain, confidential information acquired in the course of his or her official duties. See R.I. Gen. Laws § 36-14-5(c). Section 5(d) of the Code prohibits a person subject to the Code from using his or her public office or confidential information received through his or her holding public office to obtain financial gain, other than that provided by law, for him or herself, a family member, employer or business associate. See R.I. Gen. Laws § 36-14-5(d). It is the opinion of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission that the aforementioned provisions of the Code of Ethics do not prohibit the petitioner from accepting employment or consulting work from The Providence Plan in its Ready to Learn program, notwithstanding that the program has received some funding through legislative community service grants. There is no indication that this private employment would impair the petitioner’s independence of judgment as to her official duties, or create a potential for her use of public resources or confidential information to benefit herself or her employer. Furthermore, although section 5(a) of the Code of Ethics prohibits the petitioner from taking any official action directly relating to her private employer’s receipt of state funding, this section does not prohibit the petitioner from participating in the legislature’s vote on the state budget as a whole. The petitioner is not a member of the House Committee on Finance, which is the legislative committee with primary authority and oversight over community service grants. The petitioner represents that the community service grant to the Ready to Learn program does not appear as an individual line item in any of the articles of the annual appropriations bill that comes out of the Finance Committee, and it would be incredibly unlikely that the grant would be singled out for discussion during the House’s budget deliberations on the floor. In that unlikely event, the petitioner would be required to recuse from participating in such particular discussions. In such a case, a notice of recusal must be filed with the Ethics Commission and with the House of Representatives. R.I. Gen. Laws § 36-14-6. For all of the above reasons and with the aforementioned limitations, it is the opinion of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission that the Code of Ethics does not prohibit the petitioner from accepting employment with the Ready to Learn program as a literacy consultant, nor does it prohibit her from participating in House of Representatives discussion and voting on the state budget as a whole. Code Citations: 36-14-5(a) 36-14-5(b) 36-14-5(c) 36-14-5(d) 36-14-6 36-14-7(a) 36-14-7(b) Keywords : Private employment