BILL NUMBER: S7613

SPONSOR: KAMINSKY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public officers law, in relation to prohibiting
public officers from using their authority to compel a subordinate to
use their official time to perform activities intended to benefit a
private business or for other compensated non-governmental purposes

 
PURPOSE::

The bill details that public officers cannot use their authority to
compel subordinates to use their work hours for the private benefit.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS::

Section 1 amends the public officers law to make it explicit that public
officers may not use their authority to compel a subordinate to use
their official time or resources of the state to perform activities
intended to benefit a private business or for other compensated nongov-
ernmental purposes.
              

Section 2 effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION::

The concept of superiors compelling public employees to "voluntarily"
assist with outside projects or business endeavors is clearly unethical.
When public officials use state resources for personal gain, it is
unfair to taxpayers. Current law prohibits public officers from using
state property or resources for private business or other compensated
non-governmental purposes, but it should also be made clear that public
officials cannot exercise their power to force their employees to use
their time for such purposes.

The Assembly's recent impeachment investigation report portrayed a clear
example of such exploitation. The report concluded that the former
Governor utilized the time of several state employees, as well as his
own, to further personal gain through the writing of his book.  Members
of his senior staff were also found to have done extensive work for the
book, including drafting parts of the book during normal work hours and
meeting with agents and publishers. The report also noted that certain
tasks, which senior staff assigned to subordinate employees during offi-
cial work hours, were not in fact voluntary.

These actions are plainly unethical and illegal, but demonstrate that
further clarity in the law is warranted. Under this legislation, there
will be no question as to whether officials may exercise their authori-
ty, directly or indirectly, to compel their staff to use their work
hours for another official's private benefit. The bill will do this by
making it explicit that any such acts would be a violation of Public
Officer Law, prohibiting officials from using their power to make their
subordinates "volunteer" for outside projects during work hours. Under
this law, supervisors may not ask their subordinates to use their offi-
cial time or resources of the state unrelated to the discharge of their
duties for the benefit of a private business or for other compensated
nongovernmental purposes.