Ethics in Mississippi: Navigating Public Officials’ Moral Dilemmas

JACKSON, Miss. By Geoff Pender (Mississippi Today) – A county coroner in Mississippi should not contract with their child to transport bodies. However, a county can purchase gravel from the father of a supervisor, as long as the supervisor doesn’t vote on the purchase.

Mississippi public officials dealing with issues like giving their son-in-law a government job or having a side hustle with a company that contracts with their agency can request an ethics opinion anonymously. While they are not required to follow the advice, doing so can provide some legal protection if problems arise.

In the past, Mississippi officials have sought the Ethics Commission’s opinions on various issues. Such as: whether a city fireman can sell shoes to the police department? The answer to that was no.
Is it ethical for a school board member living with a teacher to vote on renewing the teacher’s contract? The answer was no on the contract.

Here’s a look at some of the ethical dilemmas public officials have faced recently and the advice the Ethics Commission provided:

Son has ‘skills, strength, and knowledge’ to haul bodies

An elected coroner in an unnamed county wrote to the commission that before he was elected, when he was a deputy coroner, his son was hired to transport bodies for the office. He mentioned his son’s skills, strength, and availability for the job. However, the commission cited state law prohibiting a public servant from providing monetary benefit to a relative. This generally includes spouses, children, siblings, parents, and their spouses.

Violation is ‘virtually inevitable’

A Mississippi school district, dealing with nepotism, asked for guidance. The district had principals with spouses and children working under them and wanted to comply with state law and Ethics opinions. They proposed that principals could recommend relatives for jobs through an alternate administrator. The commission responded that, despite the “step-aside” provision in state law, a violation is virtually inevitable when one relative supervises another, creating an appearance of impropriety.

Legislators trying to make a buck

Elected lawmakers frequently ask if they can profit from government contracts while in office or after leaving. Recent opinions include:

• Legislators cannot provide services to a company subcontracting on a legislatively funded project.
• Former legislators cannot have an interest in a legislatively funded contract within a year of leaving office.
• Legislators can be employed by the federal government. However, the federal Hatch Act may restrict them from running in state partisan elections.
• Legislators can work for a business owned by a law firm that contracts with state agencies after a year of leaving office if paid with segregated, non-legislatively appropriated funds.

Other opinions

Additional opinions from the Ethics Commission include:

• A city alderman cannot participate in permit applications for property adjacent to their home.
• A county jail administrator cannot hire the sheriff’s daughter as a jailer.
• A former state employee cannot work for a private business on contracts they were involved with while employed by the state.
• A county cannot purchase from a real estate company employing a former supervisor who left office less than a year ago.
• A business partially owned by a state board member cannot receive a grant from a state agency authorized by that board.
• A county can do business with a company employing a supervisor’s financially independent child if the supervisor recuses themselves.
• A county tax assessor’s spouse can be a contractor to the county board of supervisors.

It’s encouraging to see Mississippi politicians, in a state not renowned for ethical government, taking an interest in maintaining clean governance free of self-dealing or nepotism. Hopefully, they follow the Ethics Commission’s advice.

Mississippi Today first published this article. We republish it here under a Creative Commons license.