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Appointing the spouse of a board member to a position supervised by the board

Appointing the spouse of a board member to a position supervised by the board
Opinions of the State Comptroller, 2009-1

The Comptroller was asked for his views regarding whether the spouse of a member of a fire district board of commissioners could serve as an appointed fire district treasurer while the spouse was on the board.*

According to the Opinion, there is no statutory or common-law prohibition against the appointment of the spouse of a member of a board of fire commissioners to the office of fire district treasurer.

However, said the Comptroller, although the relevant code of ethics does not specifically address the issue, the affected board member should disclose the spousal relationship, and recuse himself or herself from discussions, and abstain from voting, on the appointment of his or her spouse to the office of treasurer and on other matters relating solely or primarily to the treasurer.

The Comptroller noted that although an individual may not hold the offices of fire district commissioner and fire district treasurer at the same time, citing Town Law § 174 [4], he said there is no similar statutory prohibition barring the spouse of a fire district commissioner being appointed or elected to the office of fire district treasurer.

* This opinion represents the views of the Office of the State Comptroller at the time it was rendered.

The text of the Comptroller?s opinion is posted on the Internet at:
http://www.osc.state.ny.us/legal/2009/op2009.1.htm

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on July 23, 2009 (boomark / email).