As used in this title:

(1) "Agency" means an authority, board, branch, commission, committee, department, division, or other instrumentality of the executive department of state government, including administrative bodies. "Agency" includes a body corporate and politic established as an instrumentality of the State. "Agency" does not include:

(a) the judicial department of state government;

(b) quasijudicial bodies of state government;

(c) the legislative department of state government; or

(d) political subdivisions.

(2) "Business relationship" means dealings of a person with an agency seeking, obtaining, establishing, maintaining, or implementing:

(a) a pecuniary interest in a contract or purchase with the agency; or

(b) a license or permit requiring the exercise of judgment or discretion by the agency.

(3) "Employee" means an individual who is employed by an agency on a full-time, part-time, temporary, intermittent, or hourly basis. "Employee" includes an individual who contracts with an agency for personal services.

(4) 'Person' means:

(a) an individual, labor union and organization, joint apprenticeship committee, partnership, association, corporation, legal representative, mutual company, joint-stock company, trust, unincorporated organization, trustee, trustee in bankruptcy, receiver, or other legal or commercial entity located in part or in whole in the State or doing business in the State;

(b) the State and any agency or local subdivision of an agency; or

(c) a political subdivision.

(5) "Political subdivision" includes a county, city, municipality, town, village, township, district, authority, special purpose district, school district, other local government entity, or other public corporation or entity whether organized and existing under charter or general law.

(6) "Special state appointee" means a person who is:

(a) not a state officer or employee; and

(b) elected or appointed to an authority, a board, a commission, a committee, a council, a task force, or other body designated by name that:

(i) is authorized by statute or Executive Order; and

(ii) functions in a policy or an advisory role in the executive, including the administrative, department of state government, including a separate body corporate and politic.

(7) "State officer" means any of the following:

(a) the Governor;

(b) the Lieutenant Governor;

(c) the Secretary of State;

(d) the State Comptroller General;

(e) the State Treasurer;

(f) the Attorney General;

(g) the Superintendent of Education;

(h) the Commissioner of Agriculture; or

(i) the Adjutant General.

(8) "Wrongdoing" means action by an agency which results in substantial abuse, misuse, destruction, or loss of substantial public funds or public resources. "Wrongdoing" also includes an allegation that a public employee has intentionally violated federal or state statutory law or regulations or other political subdivision ordinances or regulations or a code of ethics, which violation is not merely technical or of a minimum nature.

HISTORY: 2012 Act No. 105, Section 2, eff January 1, 2012.