A complaint by the Fresno teachers union alleging two Fresno Unified trustees have violated state conflict-of-interest laws could break new legal ground if it reaches the state Attorney General's Office.

At issue is the state law that prohibits officials from holding "incompatible" offices simultaneously.

The Fresno Teachers Association alleges that trustees Carol Mills and Janet Ryan are in violation because they also are on the board of Fresno Innovative Charter Schools, which operates Dailey Elementary Charter School.

On Friday, union president Greg Gadams set a two-week deadline for Mills and Ryan to resign.

The district has denied the union's allegations and called the FTA's charges "misguided, incorrect and unwarranted."

The attorney general has previously found that school board members were in violation of conflict-of-interest laws when they also held offices on a city council or a city planning commission.

But the Attorney General's Office never has issued a legal opinion on the compatibility of school district and charter school boards, a spokeswoman said Friday.

Without investigating the complaint against Fresno Unified, the attorney general could not know whether the trustees were in conflict, the spokeswoman said.

State law prohibits public officials from holding two offices at the same time when one office has authority over the other. Holding these dual positions sets up the possibility of a clash of duties or loyalties, according to the Attorney General's Office.

When this conflict occurs, the public official must resign or be forced out of the first office. In the case of Mills and Ryan, it would mean stepping down from the Fresno Unified board.

The union also alleges that Superintendent Michael Hanson has a conflict of interest because he is working as Fresno Unified's top executive while making decisions as a Dailey board member. Hanson is not being asked to step down, however.

District spokeswoman Susan Bedi said Thursday the offices weren't in conflict because both boards work toward the same objectives.

Also, she said, the law doesn't apply to Dailey because the charter school operates as a nonprofit. She added that trustees commonly volunteer to serve with nonprofit organizations.

But Gadams says the state laws do apply because Dailey is a public school and receives public funding.

Gadams also said that either Hanson, Ryan or Mills could sit on Dailey's board -- but not all three of them -- but Ryan or Mills still would need to resign from the FUSD board before joining Dailey's board.

California education code says that nonprofit charter schools are entitled to have "a single representative" from their chartering district sit on the board of directors.

Fresno Unified attorneys say the law does not limit how many district representatives may sit on Dailey's board.

Dailey's board has seven members, none of whom is paid. Before the school opened in 2010, it had a five-person board that included Hanson, Mills and Ryan. Because district officials held a board majority, the nonprofit wasn't sufficiently autonomous to qualify for a $600,000 federal grant.

To address this concern, Fresno Unified representatives selected two community members to join the board.

Bedi said Thursday that the Department of Education gave start-up funding for Dailey Charter School with full knowledge of the board's composition.

The Department of Education declined to comment and deferred questions to Fresno Unified attorneys.Read the earlier story