Opinion ID: 2029434
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 19

Heading: Duties in Office

Text: Hergert argues that the filing of the various campaign forms is unrelated to the specific duties of the office of regent. Hergert misapprehends a public officer's duties, which extend beyond the officer's job description. An officer's public duties include the duty to cooperate with investigations. In State v. Douglas, 217 Neb. 199, 349 N.W.2d 870 (1984), this court, sitting as a court of impeachment, was confronted with accusations similar to those before us. The Attorney General was accused of misrepresenting facts and lying during a sworn interview that was conducted pursuant to an official investigation into his conduct. Because five members of this court must concur in finding an impeachable misdemeanor, the Attorney General was not convicted. Id. However, every member of the court in Douglas determined that a state officer has a fiduciary duty to the public to provide truthful information during an official investigation of the officer. According to the four justices, under such circumstances, an officer violates his fiduciary duties by withholding material information, as well as by lying about material information. Regarding the Attorney General's failure to disclose material information, the dissent in Douglas stated: Throughout the United States, public officers have been characterized as fiduciaries and trustees charged with honesty and fidelity in administration of their office and execution of their duties.... ... When a relationship of trust and confidence exists, the fiduciary has the duty to disclose to the beneficiary of that trust all material facts, and failure to do so constitutes fraud. (Citations omitted.) 217 Neb. at 256, 349 N.W.2d at 900 (Hastings, Shanahan, and Grant, JJ., and Moran, District Judge, dissenting). A similar reasoning was relied upon by the dissent to conclude that the Legislature had proved an impeachable misdemeanor based on circumstantial evidence that the Attorney General had lied to an investigator when he claimed not to know of a fact material to the investigation: If [the Attorney General] did lie as charged, he did so while in office. If, under State v. Hastings, 37 Neb. 96, 55 N.W. 774 (1893), gross negligence in office done corruptly is an impeachable offense, a lie is certainly a corrupt act and is more than negligence. As noted in the dissenting opinion on [the article of impeachment charging misrepresentation], we determine that defendant's conduct in so lying is a clear breach of his fiduciary duty to the people of the State of Nebraska requiring him, as Attorney General, to be honest in his official actions. 217 Neb. at 280, 349 N.W.2d at 911 (Shanahan and Grant, JJ., and Moran, District Judge, dissenting). The three-justice plurality did not believe the Legislature had proved its allegations of misrepresentation but agreed that an officer has a duty to cooperate in official investigations: If [the Attorney General] did knowingly misrepresent his knowledge of [a material fact,] he did so in the execution of his duties, as he was bound to assist in the investigation; and, accordingly, if the offense be deemed sufficiently serious, he could be removed upon the trial of an impeachment for a misdemeanor in office as that constitutional term is judicially construed. (Emphasis supplied.) State v. Douglas, 217 Neb. 199, 210, 349 N.W.2d 870, 878-79 (1984). Relying on an opinion by the New Jersey Supreme Court, the plurality in Douglas defined an officer's duties as follows: [Public officers] stand in a fiduciary relationship to the people whom they have been elected or appointed to serve.... As fiduciaries and trustees of the public weal they are under an inescapable obligation to serve the public with the highest fidelity. In discharging the duties of their office they are required to display such intelligence and skill as they are capable of, to be diligent and conscientious, to exercise their discretion not arbitrarily but reasonably, and above all to display good faith, honesty and integrity. ... They must be impervious to corrupting influences and they must transact their business frankly and openly in the light of public scrutiny so that the public may know and be able to judge them and their work fairly.... These obligations are not mere theoretical concepts or idealistic abstractions of no practical force and effect; they are obligations imposed by the common law on public officers and assumed by them as a matter of law upon their entering public office. (Emphasis supplied.) Douglas, 217 Neb. at 225-26, 349 N.W.2d at 885-86, quoting Driscoll v. Burlington-Bristol Bridge Co., 8 N.J. 433, 86 A.2d 201 (1952). We agree with these statements describing an officer's duties and reject Hergert's contention that he could be impeached only for conduct involving functions specific to his office as regent.