JOHN K. VAN DE KAMP Attorney General
ANTHONY S. DA VIGO Deputy Attorney General
AGO 83-814
No. 83-814
California Attorney General Opinion
Office of the Attorney General State of California
January 4, 1984
THE
HONORABLE JOSEPH B. MONTOYA, MEMBER OF THE CALIFORNIA STATE
SENATE, has requested an opinion on the following questions:
1. May
the State Athletic Commission license one of its members as a
professional boxing referee?
2. Does
the State Athletic Commission have authority to license a
person as a professional boxing referee with a provision that
the license is not valid within California?
CONCLUSIONS
1. The
State Athletic Commission may license one of its members as a
professional boxing referee.
2. The
State Athletic Commission does not have the authority to
license a person as a professional boxing referee with a
provision that the license is not valid within California.
ANALYSIS
The
first inquiry is whether the State Athletic Commission may
license one of the commission members as a professional
boxing referee. The State Athletic Commission (hereinafter
"commission") and the regulation in this state of
boxing and wrestling are provided for in section 18600 et
seq. of the Business and Professions Code.
1The commission consists
of eight members, six of whom are appointed by the Governor,
with the remaining two members being appointed by the Senate
Rules Committee and the Speaker of the Assembly. (§
18620.) "The commission has the sole direction,
management, and control of and jurisdiction over all boxing
contests, sparring and wrestling matches, and wrestling
exhibitions which are conducted, held, or given within this
state. . . ." (§ 18670.) The commission, as part of
its licensing functions " . . . may license clubs to
conduct, hold, or give, and may license referees,
matchmakers, assistant matchmakers, announcers, ticket
sellers, doormen, ushers, corporation treasurers, box-office
employees, and timekeepers to participate in, or be employed
in connection with, professional or amateur boxing contests,
sparring or wrestling matches, or wrestling exhibitions. . .
." Such licenses are required to hold such contests,
matches or exhibitions or be employed in them. (§ 18673;
emphasis added.)
Nothing
in the act regulating boxing and wrestling expressly
prohibits the commission from licensing one of its members as
a professional boxing referee.
[2]Accordingly, we must
determine whether some general statute or common law
principle prohibits such action. We are aware of no common
law doctrine which absolutely forbids the concurrent holding
of a public office and private employment which may give rise
to personal conflicts of interest. (But see 25
Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 295 (1955).)
[3] The common law doctrine
prohibiting conflicts of interest has been applied on a
transactional basis. Accordingly, when a conflict arises
between a public officer's official duties and his
personal interests, he need only abstain from participation
therein and from influencing any other public officer or
employee with respect to the particular transaction. (See,
e.g., 61 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 88, 92 (1978); 58
Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 345, 355-356 (1975).)
The
statutory law relating to conflicts of interest which is
applicable generally to state appointive officers such as the
commissioners herein is found in sections 1090 et seq., 8920
et seq. and 87100-87103 of the Government Code. The starting
point in conflicts of interest analysis is sections
87100-87103 of the Government Code which are found in the
Political Reform Act of 1974 (PRA). This is so since that act
prevails over any conflicting legislation. However,
additional requirements may be imposed upon public officials
so long as those requirements do not prevent the person from
complying with the PRA. (Gov. Code, § 81013.)
Section
87100 of the Government Code is the basis prohibition section
of the PRA. It states:
"No public official at any level of state or local
government shall
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