Opinion 93-18

January 28, 1993

NOTE: OVERRULED BY OPINION 05-14

Digest:         A judicial hearing officer (JHO), who serves as such in a different jurisdiction, may run for mayor of the JHO’s village of residence.

Rules:          22 NYCRR 100.5(h).

Opinion:

         A judicial hearing officer (JHO) inquires whether a JHO may run for village mayor and continue to act in the JHO’s quasi-judicial capacity. The judicial hearing officer sits in traffic court in a multi-judge court in a particular county four days per month, but lives in a different county, where the JHO would serve as village mayor in the community of the JHO’s residence.

         The position of judicial hearing officer is sui generis. This Committee is of the opinion that there is no ethical bar to the inquiring judicial hearing officer’s running for mayor of the JHO’s village of residence in these specific circumstances, since the JHO’s quasi-judicial duties are carried out in a different jurisdiction. See 22 NYCRR 100.5(h).