MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1997 Regular Session

To: Apportionment and Elections

By: Representative Bowles

House Bill 15

AN ACT TO PROHIBIT AN ELECTED OFFICIAL FROM EMPLOYING OR CONTRACTING WITH ANYONE WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THE OFFICIAL'S CAMPAIGN OR A MEMBER OF THE OFFICIAL'S IMMEDIATE FAMILY; TO AMEND SECTION 25-1-53, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CONFORM TO THE PROVISIONS OF THIS ACT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES. 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. It shall be unlawful for any elected official or any employee of any elected official to knowingly employ, promote or contract with anyone who contributed to the official's campaign, or for the official to employ, promote or contract with any member of his immediate family. Any person found guilty of violating the provisions of this law shall immediately forfeit his office and shall be fined not less than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), imprisoned in a state correctional facility for not less than one (1) year, or both.

SECTION 2. Section 25-1-53, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

25-1-53. It shall be unlawful for any person elected, appointed or selected in any manner whatsoever to any state, county, district or municipal office, or for any board of trustees of any state institution, to appoint or employ, as an officer, clerk, stenographer, deputy or assistant who is to be paid out of the public funds, any person related by blood or marriage within the third degree, computed by the rule of the civil law, to the person or any member of the board of trustees having the authority to make the appointment or contract the employment as employer. This section shall not apply to any employee who shall have been in the department or institution before the time his or her kinsman, within the third degree, became the head of the department or institution or member of the board of trustees; and this section shall not apply to any person seeking appointment as an election worker who has served as an election worker in the election immediately preceding the commencement of a term of office as an election commissioner by his kinsman within the third degree. The provision herein contained shall not apply in the instance of the employment of physicians, nurses or medical technicians by governing boards of charity hospitals or other public hospitals. Any person who is subject to the provisions of Section 1 of this act also shall be subject to the provisions of this section to the extent that any actions taken by the person that violate Section 1 of this act are also covered by the provisions of this section.

SECTION 3. The Attorney General of the State of Mississippi shall submit this act, immediately upon approval by the Governor, or upon approval by the Legislature subsequent to a veto, to the Attorney General of the United States or to the United State District Court for the District of Columbia, in accordance with the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended and extended.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the date it is effectuated under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended and extended.