1987-229 - Laserfiche WebLink

Ethics Commission Advisory Opinion No. 229 Page 5 • Roemer are not "public employees" because Governor-Elect Roemer ct oemer is not yet an elected official. He must be "holding an office" to be an elected official, but he will not hold the office of Governor until he is inaugurated on March 14, 1988. Subsection (c) includes in the definition of "public employee" persons who are "[e]ngaged in the performance of a governmental function." This subsection of the definition of public employee, in particular, has been interpreted broadly by the Commission. In the IT case (Ethics Commission Docket Nos. 81 -09 through 81 -12), the Commission concluded that a private corporation engaged in a consulting contract with a State agency to conduct a feasibility study became a "public employee" because the performance of the feasibility study caused the corporation to become "engaged in the performance • of a governmental function." This ruling by the Commission was subsequently affirmed by the Court of Appeal First Circuit, in Commissionpon Ethics for Public Employees vs. IT Corporation, 423 So. 2nd 695 (La. App. 1st Cir., 1982). In interpreting Subsection (c), the Commission has frequently noted, in discussions, that this provision does not render any person who merely volunteers advice a "public employee." To the contrary, the Commission has advised numerous governmental agencies that they can solicit advice relative to governmental decision - making from as many persons as they wish without those persons becoming "public servants" so long as these persons who are consulted are not appointed to an advisory committee or in some way designated as being official advisors to the governmental entity. For an advisor to become " engaged in the performance of a governmental functions" and thereby i