Advisory Opinion No. 2001-12

Re: Town of Johnston

QUESTION PRESENTED

The Solicitor for the Town of Johnston, on behalf of the petitioners, the Town and its Town Council, municipal elected positions, requests an advisory opinion as to whether the Town may accept 1) the donation of a dais from the Rhode Island Resource Recovery agency, and/or 2) the donation of two boats for use by the Town's Fire Department from a business located within the Town and, therefore, subject to the Town's rules, regulations and ordinances.

RESPONSE

It is the opinion of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission that the Code of Ethics does not prohibit the Town of Johnston and/or its elected officials acting on behalf of the Town from accepting the donation of a dais from the Rhode Island Resource Recovery agency, or from accepting the donation of two boats for use by the Town's Fire Department from a business located within the Town and, therefore, subject to the Town's rules, regulations and ordinances.

The Town Solicitor, on behalf of the petitioners advises that the Johnston Town Council has the opportunity to receive, as a donation, a dais from the Rhode Island Resource Recovery agency. The dais would be used by the Town Council at its monthly meetings. The Resource Recovery agency is a quasi-public state agency located in the Town of Johnston which has a long-term agreement to make certain monetary payments to the Town as compensation for locating its facilities within the Town. In addition, the Town has been offered as a donation two boats for use by the Johnston Fire Department. The offer came from Metals Recycling, a company located in the Town and which is subject to the Town's rules, regulations and ordinances.

Under the provisions of Commission Regulation 5009, a public official may not accept a gift from an “interested person”, defined as any individual or business entity “that has a direct financial interest in a decision that the person subject to the Code of Ethics is authorized to make, or participate in the making of, as part of his or her official duties.” In an analogous advisory opinion, the Commission recently concluded that the Code did not prohibit the Rhode Island Building Officials Association from accepting the donation of space at a home show from the Rhode Island Builders Association. See A.O. 99-17. There, although the members of the Building Officials Association were municipal employees who had decision-making authority with regard to members of the Builders Association, the donation of space was provided to the Building Officials Association, rather than to individual officials. Similarly, in Advisory Opinion 99-111 the Commission concluded that the Code did not prohibit the Town of Johnston from accepting the donation of a rescue vehicle from a municipal vendor who was an “interested person” as to various Town officials. We concluded that those individual officials should not accept gifts or donations offered to them personally by the vendor but that the donation of a rescue vehicle was being provided to the Town itself, rather than to individual Town officials. Additionally, the donation did not confer a financial benefit on any individual official. Rather, it would be used to assist in the provision of municipal rescue services. Therefore, the donation/gift was not prohibited by the gift regulation, Commission Regulation 5009. Finally, there was no evidence to suggest that the gift/donation in that instance was intended to impermissibly influence any decisions of the Town. See R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 36-14-5(g) and 5(i).

The rationale articulated by the Commission in Advisory Opinion 99-111 controls here as well. Both prospective donors are "interested persons" as that term is defined in Commission Regulation 36-14-5009. Both donations, however, are earmarked for the Town of Johnston, rather than to any particular official or officials for their personal benefit. Nor is there any evidence to suggest that that gifts/donations are intended to impermissibly influence any decisions by the Town. Given all of the above, we conclude that the Town of Johnston is not prohibited from accepting the donations from either the quasi-public agency or from the private company.

Code Citations:

36-14-5(g)

36-14-5(i)

Commission Regulation 36-14-5009

Related Advisory Opinions:

99-111

99-17

98-136

Keywords:

Donations

Gifts