ADVISORY OPINION 2007-5
Further Interpretation of General Statutes § 1-84 (p)
INTRODUCTION
The Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board issues this advisory opinion at the request of an assistant general counsel with the Office of State Ethics (OSE). In that request, she asks whether supervisors and/or subordinates may pool their money to give a collective or group gift valued in excess of the monetary limit set forth in General Statutes § 1-84 (p), a gift provision in the Code of Ethics for Public Officials, chapter 10, part 1, of the General Statutes.
RELEVANT FACTS
The following facts are relevant to this opinion. Section 1-84 (p) is a three-part provision that limits gift-giving between certain individuals in state service. It provides as follows:
(1) No public official or state employee or member of the immediate family of a public official or state employee shall knowingly accept, directly or indirectly, any gift costing one hundred dollars or more from a public official or state employee who is under the supervision of such public official or state employee.
(2) No public official or state employee or member of the immediate family of a public official or state employee shall knowingly accept, directly or indirectly, any gift costing one hundred dollars or more from a public official or state employee who is a supervisor of such public official or state employee.
(3) No public official or state employee shall knowingly give, directly or indirectly, any gift in violation of subdivision (1) or (2) of this subsection.
In Advisory Opinion No. 2006-6, when asked to interpret § 1-84 (p) for the first time, we reached a three-fold conclusion: first, the monetary limit imposed by § 1-84 (p) is a per-gift—not per-year—amount; second, an individual subject to the $99.99 per-gift limit may nevertheless use the major-life-event exception; and third, the limitations imposed by § 1-84 (p) apply to a direct supervisor and subordinate and to any individual up or down the chain of command.
In the months following the issuance of Advisory Opinion No. 2006-6, both the attorneys in the legal division of the OSE and its director of education have been inundated with questions involving § 1-84 (p), the great majority of which focus on the propriety of collective or group gift-giving by individuals subject to the limitations imposed by § 1-84 (p).
QUESTION
The assistant general counsel asks whether supervisors and/or subordinates may pool their money to give a collective or group gift valued in excess of the monetary limit set forth in § 1-84 (p).
ANALYSIS
The answer to the question at hand is a matter of statutory construction, the fundamental objective of which “is to ascertain and give effect to the apparent intent of the legislature.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Perodeau v.
Looking first, as we must, to the pertinent statutory text, § 1-84 (p) provides in relevant part as follows: “No public official or state employee . . . shall knowingly accept, directly or indirectly, any gift costing one hundred dollars or more” either “from a public official or state employee who is under the supervision of such public official or state employee” or “from a public official or state employee who is a supervisor of such public official or state employee.” Under that provision, it is clear, for example, that supervisor A may not accept from subordinate X a gift valued at $150 (nor may subordinate X give such a gift). Suppose, however, that subordinates X and Y contribute $75 each to give a gift valued at $150 to supervisor A. Although the individual contributions of subordinates X and Y are less than the $99.99 limit established in § 1-84 (p), when combined, they result in a gift to supervisor A from subordinates X and Y exceeding the permissible limit. Is it a violation of § 1-84 (p) for supervisor A to accept (and for subordinates X and Y to give) such a gift?
Because the plain language of § 1-84 (p) does not unambiguously resolve the question before us, and because its legislative history is silent on the matter, we look for guidance in a prior advisory opinion addressing a similar question with respect to another category of prohibited gift-givers, registered lobbyists. See Northeast Ct. Economic Alliance, Inc. v. ATC Partnership, 272
In light of Advisory Opinion No. 1997-15, with which we agree, we conclude that it is indeed a violation of § 1-84 (p) for supervisor A to accept a gift valued at $150 from subordinates X and Y (and for them to give such a gift), even though the individual contributions of subordinates X and Y are less than the $99.99 limit established in § 1-84 (p). In other words, we conclude that supervisors and/or subordinates may not pool their money to give a collective or group gift valued in excess of the monetary limit set forth in § 1-84 (p). This conclusion is consistent not only with what we believe is an obvious purpose of § 1-84 (p)—to prevent public officials and state employees from requesting or receiving lavish gifts by virtue of public position—but also with a principal purpose underlying the Code of Ethics: to allow legitimate and traditional social interaction (here, the provision and acceptance of modest gifts), but to prohibit “apparent efforts to improperly influence state decision-makers through the provision of substantial benefits.” Declaratory Ruling 93-B.
CONCLUSION
It is the opinion of the Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board that supervisors and/or subordinates may not pool their money to give a collective or group gift valued in excess of the monetary limit set forth in § 1-84 (p).
By order of the Board,
______________________________
Patricia T. Hendel
Chairperson
Dated February 27, 2007