Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout82-509 LambertiMr. Knovel F. Lamberti 4816 Virginia Road Mechanicsburg, PA 17055 Dear M. Lamberti: Mailin Address: STATE ETHICS COMMISSION P.O. BOX 1179 HARRISBURG, PA 17108 TELEPHONE: (717) 783 -1610 January 28, 1982 82 -509 RE: Representation restrictions; Department of Revenue; Accountant This Advice responds to your letter of November 10, 1981, in which you requested an opinion from the State Ethics Commission. Issue: You ask whether the Ethics Act prohibits you from doing any or all of the following activities, upon your retirement from service as the District Administrator for the Department of Revenue's Bureau of Field Operations: 1. Represent yourself or a taxpayer on appeal before the Department's Board of Appeals; 2. Represent yourself or a taxpayer before the Board of Finance and Revenue; 3. Prepare state tax returns, rebate forms and other state tax reporting items. 4. Request letter rulings from the Department on tax issues raised by a potential client; 5. Request compromises, deferred payment plans or releases on behalf of a potential client; 6. Contact any Department employee for advice; 7. Represent lottery sales agents; 8. Place an escheat claim on behalf of someone; 9. Give your work product to an associate who will represent the client before the Department during the year following your retirement. State Ethics Commission • 308 Finance Building • Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Mr. Knovel F. Lamberti January 28, 1982 Page 2 Facts: You presently serve as the District Administrator of the Harrisburg District Office, Bureau of Field Operations, for the Department of Revenue. You are an accountant, not an attorney. On December 24, 1981, you will retire from public service with the Department. You inquire about the type and extent of restrictions on representation that will be imposed upon you at that time. Discussion: As a District Administrator, you are a public employee subject to the provisions of the Ethics Act, 65 P.S. Section 401 et seq. The governmental body with which you are associated is the Department of Revenue. Under Section 3(c) of the Ethics Act, you may not represent a person, with or without compensation, on any matter before the Department of Revenue for one year after you leave that body on December 24, 1981. Thus, for that one year interim, you may not represent a taxpayer before the Department's Board of Appeals. Similarly, we believe, under the Rules of the Board of Finance and Revenue, you could not represent a taxpayer before the Board of Finance and Revenue (Board) for that same period. This is precluded by the regulations of the Board which limit eligibility to represent persons to attorneys at law. See 61 Pa Code Section 701.6(b). For purposes of the content of the Financial Interest Statements, which you, as a public employee are required to file, ministerial actions do not require client disclosure. Among the ministerial actions specifically listed in the regulations promulgated by the Ethics Commission is the preparation, filing, and review of tax returns and support- ing documents required by law, 51 Pa Code Section 5.8 (f)(3). Ministerial actions such as these do not constitute representation before the Department. Thus you can prepare state tax returns, rebate forms and other state tax reporting items. As long as your contact with the Department is equiva- lent to the contact a member of the general public would have with it, such that you do not use your past employment as a means of influencing Departmental action, the Ethics Act will not bar that contact. Thus, you may request letter rulings from the Department on tax issues raised by a potential client in the first year following your retirement if the request is one for information and does not approach the tenor of active representation on behalf of a client. Mr. Knovel F. Lamberti January 28, 1982 Page 3 Requesting compromises, deferred payment plans or releases on behalf of a potential client appears to have a representative character that goes beyond being a mere ministerial act. Thus, you could not seek to achieve such decisions for a client, if it involved addressing the Department, for one year following your retirement. Within the same limits, you could not contact any Department employee for advice beyond that which he or she would be able to provide to someone in the general public who had not been a co employee. Similarly, within the first year after you retire, you could not represent lottery sales agents before the Department, nor place an escheat claim on behalf of someone if such a claim involves your represent- ing the client before the Department. The Section 3(e) restrictions are personal to you; at any time you could give your work product to an associate for purposes of representation during that year, so long as neither you nor your name appears on items presented to the Department. Conclusion: Within the parameters established above, your activities in the year following your retirement on December 24, 1981 are restricted by Section 3 of the Ethics Act. As a former public employee you must also file a final Financial Interest Statement no later than May 1, 1982, as required by Section 4(a) of the Ethics Act. Pursuant to Section 7(9)(ii), this Advice is a complete defense in any enforcement proceeding initiated by the Commission, and evidence of good faith conduct in any other civil or criminal proceeding, providing the requestor has disclosed truthfully all the material facts and committed the acts complained of in reliance on the Advice given. This letter is a public record and will be made available as such. Finally, if you disagree with this Advice or if you have any reason to challenge same, you may request that the full Commission review this Advice. A personal aPPearance before the Commission may be scheduled and a formal Opinion from the Commission will be issued. You should make such a request or indicate your disapproval of this Advice within the next 30 days. BF /rdp cc: Edward J. Miller, Deputy Secretary Sincerely, 4 t49 S`. istianson General Counsel