Advisory Opinion No. 96-41

Re: Carl Calicchia

Question Presented

An employee of the City of Providence Department of Inspection and Standards requests an advisory opinion as to whether the Code of Ethics prohibits him from leasing, for use during the evening hours, certain City owned parking lots that are presently used during the daytime hours by the Providence School Department.

Response

The Code of Ethics does not prohibit an employee of the City of Providence Department of Inspection and Standards from leasing City-owned parking lots provided that the lease contract is awarded through an open and public process, consistent with the requirements of R.I. Gen. Laws 36-14-5(h). The employee is not prohibited from entering into a lease agreement given that he exercises no authority or control over the municipal department that would be responsible for awarding and overseeing the lease and that the private leasing arrangement would not in and of itself impair the employee's independence of judgment as to his official duties and responsibilities.

Code Citations:

36-14-5(h)

Related Advisory Opinions:

95-86

95-41

93-87

92-07

89-88

89-74

Keywords:

contracts