109 N.J.L.J. 294
                                        April 8, 1982

OPINION 492

Conflict of Interest
School Board Attorney's Wife a Teacher

    The possible conflict posed by this inquiry is one that has been dealt with in other opinions but not in precisely this factual situation. The inquirer states that he is counsel for a board of education; that his wife has received a temporary appointment as a teacher in that system and that there is a possibility she may continue to teach there in the future. The school budget for the district was recently defeated by the voters and he questions whether, if the budget is required to go to court to be heard by an Administrative Law Judge, and perhaps ultimately by the Commissioner of Education, his support of the budget, which obviously contains salary provisions, will represent a conflict of interest since his wife will be paid out of that budget?
    In Opinion 318, 93 N.J.L.J. 823 (1975), we held that the wife of an assistant county counsel who was appointed to the board of freeholders of the county and was a candidate for re-election, did not create a conflict requiring the resignation of the husband as assistant county counsel, citing numerous prior decisions. The possible conflict situation here is even more remote than that and there seems to be little likelihood of any direct conflict.