Opinion ID: 1122588
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: interpreting the charter provision

Text: Acevedo next argues that section 2.3 should not be interpreted to prohibit his continued employment as a police officer, based on the rule of construction that a municipal enactment should be liberally interpreted so as to achieve its object. [4] See 1A C. Sands, Statutes and Statutory Construction § 30.06 (3d rev. ed. 1972). He states: The obvious and only common sense purpose of section 2.3 is to prevent a person from obtaining a municipal job if he has been in a position to use his power as a City official to influence another City official or employee to hire him, to hire himself, to create a new ... job for himself, or to increase the salary for a job he plans to take. Because preventing the use of influence to attain a job is the section's only purpose, Acevedo concludes, section 2.3 must be interpreted to preclude the initiation, but not the continuation, of employment by the City of its elected officials. The City, on the other hand, contends that the purpose of section 2.3 is not so limited. It argues that the section's purpose is to prevent this use of influence and to prevent elected City officials from simultaneously holding positions as City employees. [5] The simultaneous holding of more than one public office has been a traditional subject of public concern. Cummings v. Godin, 377 A.2d 1071, 1074 (R.I. 1977) (citing Osetek v. City of Chicopee, 370 Mass. 110, 345 N.E.2d 897 (1976)). This concern was reflected in the common law rule against the holding of incompatible offices, which rule was later extended to include public employment. See Knuckles v. Board of Education of Bell County, 272 Ky. 431, 114 S.W.2d 511 (1938) and cases cited therein; Haskins v. State ex rel. Harrington, 516 P.2d 1171, 1174-78 (Wyo. 1973). Many jurisdictions have enacted provisions in accordance with this rule, some prohibiting the holding of more than one office or employment whether or not the positions were incompatible under the common law. Doyle v. City of Dearborn, 370 Mich. 236, 121 N.W.2d 473, 475 (1963); see 3 E. McQuillan, Municipal Corporations § 12.66 (3d rev. ed. 1982). The purposes attributed to such provisions include: (1) preventing multiple position-holding, so that offices and positions of public trust would not accumulate in a single person; (2) preventing individuals from deriving, directly or indirectly, any pecuniary benefit by virtue of their dual position-holding; (3) avoiding the inherent conflict which occurs when an employee's elected position has revisory power over the employee's superior in another position; and (4) generally, to insure that public officeholders and public employees discharge their duties with undivided loyalty. 3 E. McQuillan, Municipal Corporations § 12.67 (3d rev. ed. 1982); Cummings v. Godin, 377 A.2d at 1075; see also Warwick v. State ex rel. Chance, 548 P.2d 384 (Alaska 1976). Begich v. Jefferson, 441 P.2d 27 (Alaska 1968). Acevedo's interpretation ignores this traditional concern regarding the simultaneous holding of more than one public position, and accepting it would not completely serve the aforementioned objects. Since it appears to us that section 2.3 is unambiguously directed toward serving these interests, we reject Acevedo's argument that section 2.3 does not prohibit his continued employment as a police officer.