Posted on: Sunday, May 22, 2005

Fine levied for making crafts while on state job

Associated Press

The State Ethics Commission has imposed a $500 fine on a state employee for making and selling crafts while on the job, a violation of ethics rules prohibiting civil servants from operating private businesses at the office, an official said.

The woman, who ran a business with her husband, made the crafts with fellow state workers in their office break room.

"When people are doing these things and are making money off it, we treat it as a business enterprise," Daniel Mollway, the commission's executive director, said Friday.

"How much money is involved doesn't make a lot of difference."

The commission refused to identify the woman, a 15-year employee of the state, or say what department she worked in.

The woman sold the crafts she made to fellow workers at her agency and used her office telephone to take orders for craft supplies, the commission said in an informal advisory opinion on the case, posted on its Web site.