I dont want to run into any legal trouble .

I am currently a director of facilities at a college in Texas.


My dad owns a landscaping business . In all good faith can I hire him as a contractor to do the work at the college ?

No. Even the appearance of a conflict of interest counts.

Thank you for the response on this

It's when all the scared rats start running away from the sinking market that the true entrepreneurs come in. True visionaries

The size of the school and surrounding community could influence the acceptability. If your dad wants to put in a bid, you should kick it up to your direct supervisor - at the very least so dad knows it's not your decision to not hire him if there's a problem.

Harry Lime said:

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The size of the school and surrounding community could influence the acceptability. If your dad wants to put in a bid, you should kick it up to your direct supervisor - at the very least so dad knows it's not your decision to not hire him if there's a problem.

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I like the thinking on this its a tough spot to be in but cant risk my well being

AggiE37 said:

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Harry Lime said:

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The size of the school and surrounding community could influence the acceptability. If your dad wants to put in a bid, you should kick it up to your direct supervisor - at the very least so dad knows it's not your decision to not hire him if there's a problem.

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I like the thinking on this its a tough spot to be in but cant risk my well being

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Is your dad the right person/company for the job? If there is reason to believe so, don't you owe it to the school to run it through the appropriate channel? If not, well then you probably shouldn't.

Stated differently, if it wasn't your father, would you hire him?

The mayor of our small town has a landscape company registered in his mother's name. She's probably 80 years old. Said company has the contract for all the city work. He gets away with it.

Casey TableTennis said:

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if it wasn't your father, would you hire him?

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this

All of my Texas government clients require me to fill out the State's Conflict of Interest Questionnaire to formally disclose any potential issues as part of the procurement process. It is included as a part of the evaluation process, but isn't typically the sole deciding factor. If your father's company bids the same quality of work as the other respondents, has excellent references and is the cheapest bid received it could very easily be argued that choosing him to do the work would be in the best interest of the college and the best use of taxpayer funds.

https://www.ethics.state.tx.us/data/forms/conflict/CIQ.pdf

Oh, look at me, I know my father

At my local school, someone was hired for a contracted job with a similar connection to someone in power, but they didn't just give the person the job. They took bids from several companies and then hired the person with the best bid and the one with the conflict didn't have a say in it.

At a minimum, you need to completely remove yourself from the bid/selection process, and it would need to be done by a peer or someone above you (ie someone you have direct influence over can't be stuck doing it). If he was selected, you would also need to remove yourself from any involvement in managing the vendor relationship in any way going forward. And this all needs to be well documented in case you ever have to defend yourself.

Best move is to just not hire him if there are other good, competitive options which I would imagine there are

It's a tricky situation. I have always gone out of my way on boards I have served on to avoid even a hint of conflict-of-interest. Would not help me in my board position or in my personal professional life. I think the fact that you're asking yourself this question means you probably know the answer.

Tell your dad to jack his rates to 3X the going rate and then give him the contract. Do you even bureaucracy, bro?

The answer is it depends.

Are you a Democrat? Female? Minority? Then it's ok

Are you a Republican? Male? White? Racist? Then no, it's not ok.

Hire your dad. Throw the Big Guy a bone.
/Biden

Private college or public? Public schools should have specific rules on how to handle it. Private may or may not.

Get bids. Remove yourself from the selection process. Document all of that.