Advisory Opinion No. 97-23

Re: Joseph A. Montalbano, Esq.

QUESTION PRESENTED

The Petitioner, a legislator serving as a member of the Rhode Island Senate, requests an advisory opinion as to whether he may accept an appointment to the North Providence Municipal Court given that his senatorial district includes portions of the Town of North Providence.

RESPONSE

It is the opinion of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission that the Petitioner, a legislator serving as a member of the Rhode Island Senate, may accept an appointment to the North Providence Municipal Court. Very simply, the sovereign the Petitioner serves as an elected member of the State Senate is different from the sovereign he would serve as an appointed official in the Town of North Providence; as a result, he may hold the two offices simultaneously without any conflict of interest.

In addition, in his capacity as a member of the State Senate, the Petitioner does not exercise either fiscal or jurisdictional control over the North Providence Municipal court. And, as a Municipal Court Judge, the Petitioner has jurisdiction over violations of North Providence ordinances, by-laws, and rules and regulations, but does not enforce state statutes. Given that the Petitioner's duties as Senator and as a Municipal Court Judge are separate and distinct, absent some other relationship, or unless some issue came before one of the forums in which the Petitioner serves that directly impacted the other, no conflicts of interest under the Code of Ethics are present.

Code Citations:

36-14-5(a)

36-14-5008

Related Advisory Opinions:

96-026

96-012

95-038

93-015

92-071

Keywords:

dual public roles