New York City Conflicts of Interest Board
Department of Education
INTRODUCTION
This booklet contains frequently asked questions about the Conflicts of
Interest Law as it pertains to Board of Education employees. It is meant as
a general guide and not as a substitute for legal guidance from the
Conflicts of Interest Board or from the Board of Education’s Ethics Officer.
For confidential information about the Conflicts of Interest Law, call the
Board at 212 442-1400, or call the Board of Ed Ethics Officer at 718 935-
5300.
Q. What is the so-called ethics law?
A. The conflicts of interest law, contained in Chapter 68 of the revised
City Charter, deals with the conflicts that might arise for any City employee
between his or her public duties and private interests. Most conflicts are
financial in nature, falling into the following categories:
• SECOND JOBS (OUTSIDE CITY SERVICE)
• GIFTS & HONORARIA
• POST-CITY EMPLOYMENT
• OWNERSHIP INTERESTS
• FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
• POLITICAL ACTIVITIES
• VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES
Q. What is the Conflicts of Interest Board?
A. The Conflicts of Interest Board was established in 1989 with the
revision of the City Charter. It is the agency charged with the
administration and enforcement of the City’s ethics law. The five Board
members are nominated to their six-year terms by the Mayor, with the
advice and consent of the City Council, and meet at least once a month to
discuss and decide ethics questions and issues brought before it. On a
day-to-day basis, a full-time staff attends to particular needs:
• LEGAL ADVICE UNIT staff answers questions about ethics issues from
City employees who may call or write, anonymously if they prefer.
• THE TRAINING AND EDUCATION UNIT conducts classes in the law for
any agency that requests it. They also create publications such as this
one, and have produced an ethics video for Board of Ed employees and
officials.
• THE ENFORCEMENT UNIT investigates allegations of, and prosecutes
cases of, misconduct on the part of NY City employees and officials.
• THE FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE UNIT handles over 12,000 Financial
Disclosure reports from City employees.
SECOND JOBS
(OUTSIDE CITY SERVICE) “MOONLIGHTING”
Q. I’m considering seeking a part-time job. Are there restrictions?
A. Generally, the City’s conflicts of interest law does not prohibit
second jobs, unless the second job is with a company that has business
with the City, including the Board of Ed, such as City contracts or a license
with a City agency. You also may not have a second job that puts you in
personal, written, or telephone contact with the Board of Ed or any City
employees. In addition, your second job must be done on your own time,
and you may not use your official Board of Ed position, confidential
information, or Board of Ed personnel or equipment to perform the job, or
to benefit your non-Board of Ed employer. In seeking your outside job, you
must follow these rules as well.
Q. What if the job is with a firm that has business dealings with the
Board of Ed or another agency of the City?
A. Waivers are available, depending on circumstances. You must
receive written approval from the Chancellor, stating that your second job
would not conflict with your official Board of Ed duties. Contact the Board
of Ed’s Ethics Officer to see if the Chancellor will approve your request.
The approval, if granted, will be forwarded to the Conflicts of Interest
Board. If the Conflicts of Interest Board sees no conflict, you will be
granted a waiver and you will be permitted to work the second job. If the
firm has dealings with the Board of Ed, obtaining a waiver is more difficult,
but each waiver request is handled on a case-by-case basis. Carefully
examining your Board of Ed position and your outside job, the Conflicts of
Interest Board will determine if there is a possible conflict of interest and
will decide if you should receive a waiver.
Q. I work as a secretary for the Board of Ed, and I want to take a job
working nights and weekends for a firm that does business with the
Department of Consumer Affairs. May I do this?
A. A City employee is not permitted to accept a second job with – or
have an ownership interest in – any firm, including a private university, that
does business with the City. However, the Conflicts of Interest Board will
grant waivers in situations where they feel that having the City employee
work with a firm doing business with the Board of Ed or another City
agency would not conflict with the interests of the Board of Ed or the City.
Before you can work for this company, you would have to get an approval
letter from the Chancellor’s Office. The Board of Ed Ethics Officer will
forward it on to the Conflicts of Interest Board. In such a case, the
Conflicts of Interest Board would probably give the secretary a waiver.
Q. As a teacher, can I tutor the siblings of three of my students as a
side job?
A. No. While teachers may have an excellent built-in client base, they
are prohibited from tutoring students in their own school and the siblings
of those students. In addition, they may not advertise their services
anywhere on Board of Ed property or in any Board of Ed publication.
However, teachers may advertise in publications of the PTA or other
parent’s organizations of other schools.
Q. I am a high school math teacher, and I have written a math book on
my own time. My publisher wants to sell the book to Board of Ed schools,
including my own school. Is this allowed?
A. You will first need an approval letter from the Chancellor’s Office,
and a waiver from the Conflicts of Interest Board. However, you may not
accept any royalties from the sale of the book to your own high school. In
the case of an elementary or middle school teacher writing a book, he or
she would not be able to accept royalties from the sale of the book to the
entire district where his or her school is located. In addition, no Board of
Ed employee who wants to sell a book to the Board of Ed can be involved
in any sales of the book to the Board of Ed, or in the selection of books to
be purchased by the Board of Ed.
Q. I am a teacher, and I would like to be a counselor at a camp that is
part of the Break-Aways Program. Is this okay?
A. The Conflicts of Interest Board has decided that participants in this
program should be granted waivers. The camp should write a letter to the
Board of Ed Ethics Officer listing all the teachers that will be working in the
program. That list will be provided to the Conflicts of Interest Board, and
those teachers will be granted a waiver.
Q. I am a school psychologist. Excellent Evaluators, a psychological
testing firm, wishes to hire me to perform evaluations of children who
attend Board of Ed schools. Excellent Evaluators does not do business
with the Board of Ed, but my evaluations would be submitted and reviewed
at Impartial Hearings concerning the children I have evaluated. Board of
Ed employees participate in the Impartial Hearings. I might even have to
appear at Impartial Hearings. May I perform this work for Excellent
Evaluators?
A. No, you may not. The Conflicts Law prohibits City employees from
appearing, directly or indirectly, before any City agency, including the
Board of Ed. Your personal appearances at Impartial Hearings, and the
submission and review of your evaluations would be appearances before
the Board of Ed, which are prohibited by the Conflicts Law.
GIFTS AND HONORARIA
Q. I’ve heard about the “valuable gifts” rule. Could you explain it?
A. Board of Ed employees are restricted from accepting gifts with a
value of $50 or more from any person or firm doing business with the City,
not just the Board of Ed. This includes cash, tickets to concerts, plays, or
sports events, travel expenses, meals, or anything else of value. The
Board’s “aggregate rule” further restricts you from taking two or more gifts
from a vendor that cumulatively add up to $50 or more in any twelve month
period.
Q. What about gifts from students? Am I prohibited from taking those?
A. Be careful. Students often give small gifts to teachers, especially
during the end-of-year holiday season. You can accept such gifts; just be
certain that they are of minimal value. In other words, a $6 “World’s
Greatest Teacher” mug from a student is an acceptable gift; a wristwatch
from a student or parent is not.
Q. My students have collectively contributed to a $60 fruit basket for
me for the end-of-the-year holidays. Can I accept this gift?
A. In this case, even though the gift is of greater than negligible value, a
number of students contributed smaller amounts of money to buy the
basket. But the gift must be identified as being from the entire class, not
from the individual students who contributed.
Q. Vendors that sell to the Board of Ed often invite me out to a business
lunch, which they pay for. Is this prohibited?
A. If it costs $50 or more, it probably is. Even if it doesn’t, a free meal is
rarely just that, and to avoid the appearance of impropriety, one should be
extremely cautious about accepting any meal. As there are some minor
exceptions regarding the acceptance of meals valued at $50 or more,
contact the Board of Ed Ethics Officer in any such situation where you
have been offered a valuable meal.
And of course the aggregate rule mentioned above applies here as well.
Q. What’s the rule regarding trips paid for by a firm doing business with
the Board of Ed?
A. The trip must have a definite Board of Ed purpose. In addition, the
airfare and accommodations must be reasonable, and generally not
luxurious. The trip should take only as long as it takes to conduct whatever
business must be performed. It is required that travel arrangements be
approved by the Board of Ed Ethics Officer.
Q. My school PTA has selected a teacher of the year, and would like to
give her a plaque. This is okay, isn’t it?
A. Generally, this would be okay, provided the value of the plaque does
not exceed $150. The Conflicts of Interest Board has established $150 as
the maximum value of such an award that any City employee may receive.
POST-CITY EMPLOYMENT
Q. A vendor I work with at the Board of Ed asked me if I might be
interested in working for them. May I interview for a position with that firm?
A. You could pursue the opportunity, but first you’d have to be removed
from your dealings with that firm. Once the negotiations are over, you may
return to the project you were working on with that firm, unless you accept
a job with the firm. Also, the interviews have to be on your own time, you
may not use Board of Ed supplies or personnel, and you couldn’t use
Board of Ed letterhead for any correspondence regarding the position.
Remember also that you may not use your Board of Ed position or
confidential Board of Ed information to benefit your job search or your
prospective new employer.
Q. The job would involve me returning to the Board of Ed on behalf of
the new firm to discuss business. Is this a problem?
A. Yes. Former Board of Ed employees are prohibited from “appearing”
before the Board of Ed on business for a period of one year. “Appearance”
is a legal term and it means, basically: any communication you might have
with the Board of Ed for which you are getting paid by your new employer.
This means you may not appear in person, write letters, or make phone
calls to the Board of Ed as part of your new job for one full year after
leaving City employment. You can appear for lunch with friends as long as
your purpose is social, not business.
Q. My prospective new employer probably wants me because of the
work I did on a particular project for the Board of Ed. Can I work on that
project, this time for the new firm?
A. The post-employment restriction goes even further regarding
involvement in “particular matters.” You would be prohibited from ever
working on that project. Your name could not appear on any papers; you
couldn’t appear before the Board of Ed (phone calls, letters, or in-person
visits) on the project for the life of the project. You could not even work
behind the scenes on that project. If the project or contract is renewed, in
most cases it is considered to be a new project and you would be allowed
to work on it. This does not prohibit you from working for the firm -- only
from working on that particular project.
Q. Suppose I retired from the Board of Ed where I did purchasing, and
then six months later I wanted to establish a consulting firm representing
businesses that want to sell to the Board of Ed. Would this be a problem?
A. Again, you cannot, as a former employee, appear before your old
agency for one year. So you can’t make phone calls, attend meetings, or
write letters on behalf of your clients to the Board of Ed.
Q. I just accepted a position with the State Board of Regents doing the
same thing I am doing for the Board of Ed. Is this a conflict?
A. No. Under the “government-to-government exception,” this would
not pose a conflict of interest.
Q. I was a teacher for the Board of Ed for 25 years, and I just retired to
work as a speech therapist for a firm that is a Board of Ed vendor. Can I
provide therapy this semester to children as part of the firm’s contract with
the Board of Ed and appear before the Board of Ed? (In other words, can
the one year ban be lifted in my case?)
A. The Chancellor has usually, but not always, given an approval letter
for requests for waivers for retired Board of Ed employees, but not for
those who have left the Board of Ed before retirement. The Conflicts of
Interest Board has usually granted waivers where the Chancellor has given
an approval letter. Because the Board of Ed’s needs and shortage areas
may vary, contact the Board of Ed Ethics Officer at (718) 935-5300 if you
want to do this kind of work.
OWNERSHIP INTERESTS
Q. What is the prohibition on having an ownership interest in a
business?
A. The restriction is only on having an interest in a firm that does
business with the City. If you have such an interest, you will need a letter
of approval from the Chancellor and an order from the Conflicts of Interest
Board, both of which the Board of Ed’s Ethics Officer can help you get.
Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, and getting approval will
depend on what you do at the Board of Ed and what your firm is selling to
what City agency. If you are selling to the Board of Ed, obtaining an order
will be more difficult. If it is your spouse or registered domestic partner
who has the interest, you still need to get approval from the Chancellor and
the Conflicts of Interest Board.
Q. So what exactly is an ownership interest?
A. Any time you (or your spouse, domestic partner, or unemancipated
child) own more than five percent of a firm, or have an investment in a firm
that is $32,000 or more, you are said to have an ownership interest. (If you
have any kind of managerial control or responsibility concerning that firm,
however, there is no minimum percentage or dollar amount you need to
have invested in order to have an ownership interest.)
It is okay, however, to have these investments if they are in the form
of publicly traded stock, unless the company whose stock you own does
business with your agency. There are many other details involving
ownership interests that may affect you. Contact the Conflicts of Interest
Board to determine if your interest in a firm might cause a conflict with
your Board of Ed position.
FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
Q. My subordinate is a skilled tradesperson who does great work. Can I
hire her to do work for me at home?
A. No. One of the most important protections from abuses that City
employees have is contained in the City’s ethics law. Superiors and
subordinates are prohibited from having any kind of financial relationship.
This includes lending money, other than a nominal amount, going into
business together, employing one another, or paying for goods and/or
services. This prohibition serves as protection to all City employees from
abuses by co-workers who may expect payback, positive or negative, some
time in the future.
Q. I am a teacher and I’d like to get my recently graduated son a
teaching job in a school in a neighboring district. He’s certainly qualified
for the position. Is that a conflict?
A. You may not use your official Board of Ed position to directly or
indirectly benefit a close family member or someone with whom you have a
financial relationship. You also may not divulge confidential information. If
the job information is not available to the public, you couldn’t tell your son
about the job in the first place. It is okay, however, to tell your son about a
new job that is known to the general public, as long as you don’t use your
position or influence to get him that job.
POLITICAL ACTIVITIES
Q. What are the restrictions on political activities?
A. Being a public servant does not diminish your right to engage in
political activity. You may work on campaigns or even run for office.
However there are a few rules:
• You must perform all your political activities on your own time.
• You may not use Board of Ed letterhead, supplies, equipment, or
personnel.
• You may not coerce or induce fellow employees to participate in or
contribute to a campaign by threatening their jobs or by promising them
raises or promotions.
• You may not even ask subordinates if they want to contribute to or
participate in a campaign.
• Your contribution may not be in return for your appointment or
promotion as a public servant.
• If you are a high-ranking Board of Ed official you may not engage in
fund-raising for certain political campaigns.
For further information and guidelines, contact the Board of Ed’s Ethics
Officer.
Q. The principal at the school where I teach is running for City Council
and has asked several teachers to work on his campaign. He can’t really
do this, can he?
A. No. Again, a City employee may not even ask his subordinates if they
want to participate in or contribute to a campaign – his or someone else’s.
And, of course, he certainly may not coerce or in any way induce co-
workers or subordinates to participate or contribute to the campaign by
threatening their jobs or by promising them raises or promotions.
VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES
Q. I would like to volunteer to be on the Board of Directors or take an
administrative position for a not-for-profit that has dealings with the Board
of Ed. Is that a conflict of interest?
A. It could be. In such a case, you must first obtain written approval
from the Chancellor’s Office stating that your volunteer work would be in
the best interests of the City. If you receive approval you will have to abide
by the following restrictions:
• All of your volunteer work must be done on your own time.
• You may not use Board of Ed letterhead, supplies, equipment, or
personnel for the work.
• You may not take part in any business the not-for-profit has with the
City.
• You may not be compensated (if you are, you would be subject to the
second jobs restrictions above).
• You may not use confidential Board of Ed or City information nor may
you use your Board of Ed position to benefit your not-for-profit.
Q. I serve without pay on the Board of Directors of a not-for-profit
organization that receives a grant from the Parks Department but has no
dealings with the Board of Ed. Is this okay?
A. Yes, provided that you have nothing to do with the organization’s
business dealings with the City and that none of the work is done on City
time or using City resources or personnel.
Q. I am thinking of volunteering as a basketball coach in a program
sponsored by a not-for-profit that gets funding from the Board of Ed. I
would have no administrative or decision making authority. I can do this,
right?
A. If you have no administrative or decision-making authority at the
organization and are not doing the work of a paid employee, you can
volunteer there without receiving Board of Ed approval. But you may not
be involved with the organization as part of your City job.
CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
Q. I just learned through my Board of Ed job that the Board of Ed is
considering purchasing a new state-of-the-art alarm system that uses
brand-new technology. I have a friend who’s in that field, and I’d like to
discuss it with him. I can do this, can’t I?
A. No. A public servant may not disclose confidential information
concerning the property, affairs, or government of the City, including the
Board of Ed, that is obtained as a result of his or her official duties and that
is not otherwise available to the public.
Questions???
Call the Board at (212) 442-1400 or visit the Board at 2 Lafayette
Street, Suite 1010, NY, NY 10007, in the City Hall area.
