Ethics Opinion Search

May 22, 1996



Opinion No. 1996-18



William D. Grant, Jr.
General Counsel
Office of the State Bank Commissioner
700 Jackson, Suite 300
Topeka, Kansas 66603-3714

Dear Mr. Grant:

This opinion is in response to your letter of April 12, 1996, in which you
request an opinion from the Kansas Commission on Governmental Standards and
Conduct concerning the state level conflict of interest laws (K.S.A. 46-215
et seq.). We note at the outset that the Commission's jurisdiction
concerning your question is limited to the application of K.S.A. 46-215 et
seq., and whether some other statutory system, common law theory or agency
rule and regulation applies to your inquiry is not covered by this opinion.

FACTUAL STATEMENT

We understand you request this opinion in your capacity as General Counsel
for the Office of the State Bank Commissioner. You advise us that a field
examiner (employee) for the Bank Commissioner's office has an opportunity
to participate in a program to market long distance telephone services.
Businesses, including Kansas state-chartered banks, are potential
purchasers of the service. The employee would not be involved in directly
marketing the product to any Kansas state-chartered banks, however
individuals recruited to be part of the employee's marketing team would
conduct direct marketing activities toward banks.

In the event that a member of the employee's marketing team would solicit a
bank, the employee would not have any knowledge of which bank was being
approached. The employee would not identify any banks as potential
clients, nor would the employee's name ever be mentioned to a bank during
the marketing process. While the employee would not directly supervise the
members of the team, the employee would receive compensation from each
sale.
Opinion No. 96-
May 22, 1996
Page 2



QUESTION

Do the solicitation and sale of the service by the employee's team member
to a Kansas state-chartered bank constitute a violation of the state level
conflict of interest laws?

OPINION

We have reviewed the state level conflict of interest laws in their
entirety, and two sections may apply to your situation. K.S.A. 46-236 in
pertinent part states:

"No state officer or employee, candidate for state office or state
officer elect shall solicit any economic opportunity, gift, loan,
gratuity, special discount, favor, hospitality, or service from any
person known to have a special interest, under circumstances where
such officer, employee, candidate or state officer elect knows or
should know that a major purpose of the donor in granting the same
could be to influence the performance of the official duties or
prospective official duties of such officer, employee, candidate or
state officer elect".

K.S.A. 46-286(a) states:

"No state officer or employee, in the officer's or employee's official
capacity, shall participate directly in the licensure, inspection or
administration or enforcement of any regulation of or in any contract
with any outside organization with which the officer or employee holds
a position".

As you correctly note in your letter, so long as the employee does not
solicit (K.S.A. 46-236) or hold a position with (K.S.A. 46-286) any Kansas
state-chartered bank, the situation you describe would not be a violation
of the state level conflict of interest laws.

Sincerely,



Diane Gaede, Chairwoman

By Direction of the Commission

DG:WCS:dlw