Silly season (election season) is sillier than usual this year! I’m not sure there is much more to say.
ETHICS ORDINANCE
For inquiring minds, this is what the ethics code says about it:
3.35(8) Political Activity .
(a) No employee while on duty or on official City business shall, for the apparent purpose of influencing the outcome of any referendum, or improving the chance of election of a person seeking elective office:
1. Wear or display any campaign material.
2. Distribute any campaign literature.
3. Solicit, receive or give subscriptions, contributions or service for any candidate or referendum position.
4. Actively campaign for any candidate or any referendum position.
(b) No employee while on duty or other official City business or off duty shall in any way coerce or attempt to coerce subscriptions, contributions or service from subordinate employees in support of a political party or a candidate for elective office or for or against a referendum position, or retaliate against or reward an employee for refraining from participating in any political activity. No employee on or off duty shall use her or his title or position or indicia thereof in any elective political activity.
(c) This subsection does not apply to a response by a legal custodian or subordinate of the custodian to a request to locate, reproduce or inspect a record under Wis. Stat. § 19.35, if the request is processed in the same manner as the custodian or subordinate response to other requests to locate, reproduce or inspect a record under such section or to an employee providing other information within the knowledge of the employee by virtue of her or his City position if such information is made equally available upon request to any other person.
(d) Police officers and firefighters shall observe the applicable rules of the Police and Fire Departments relating to political activity.
(e) No elected official or candidate for a City elected office shall promise an appointment to any municipal position as an apparent reward for any political activity.
(f) Pursuant to 5 USC sec. 1502, employees whose positions are federally funded in whole or in part may not be candidates in partisan elections without first being granted an unpaid leave of absence.
So, I think the bolded language might now have to me more clear, but I think this language is interpreted to mean that when your boss posts who they are supporting, that is putting pressure on employees to do the same. I know that is the way its been interpreted in city hall and its the legislative intent. Department heads know its not ethical. I can’t think of any department head in my 30 years of paying attention to local government (both city and county) that has endorsed candidates for city council. Its a long time, but I would think that would stick out in my mind. This is unprecedented.
IMAGINE IF ALL DEPARTMENTS HEADS ENDORSED CANDIDATES!
That would just get wacky real quick. Can you imagine if
- Matt Wachter from Planning, Community and Economic Development endorsed candidates he wanted to have (or not have) on the Plan Commission so he could influence their votes on the Plan Commission?
- Fire Chief Chris Carbon endorsed alders when he needed a new fire station or training center.
- Dave Schmiedicke from the Finance Department endorsed the alders on the Finance Committee?
- if Tom Lynch from the Transportation Department endorsed only alders that supported the new Metro Routes and Bus Rapid Transit.
Ok, you get the point . . . down the rabbit hole we go. I’m sure you can think of other examples.
And I’m sure you can see why this is SOOOOO inappropriate, for the department with the largest department budget ($90 million) and about 25% of the city budget to be making endorsements like this.
Wow.
Interesting?
MAYOR S. RHODES-CONWAY ENDORSES IN CITY COUNCIL RACES… sorry, that was not the headlines. Let’s fact check: Did former MAYOR PAUL SOGLIN ENDORSE IN CITY COUNCIL RACES?
Sadly, we have already gone down the rabbit hole..who did S.R.C. endorse and DID NOT ENDORSE? Well she certainly did not endorse ISADOR KNOX – in South Madison.
Just saying.
I’m not really sure how a context-less list of names on the Police Chief’s personal Facebook could be construed as endorsements or political activity.
The Mayor, on the other hand, is making many, many Alder endorsements and hosting fundraisers for some, even though she’ll have to work with this broken Council right from the start). If the Mayor can make endorsements, the police Chief surely should be able to. The Mayor openly says she endorses candidates most in line with her priorities. The Chief openly endorses no one.
I don’t like the Mayor’s priorities for the City, so I look at it as a list of worse candidates. I would be most interested in who Chief Barnes would endorse, if he could, because my top priority is the safety of our City. Seems like a good list if these were his picks, but we have no context. He doesn’t state he is endorsing them. His name is not on any candidate mailers (like the Mayor’s is) and I don’t think he’s thrown any fundraisers or spoken at any campaign events as a supporter and guest (like the Mayor has).
Tired of the double standards.
The mayor is a politically elected offical, the Chief is a staff person for the city. Two very different things. You don’t like the mayor, don’t vote for her. Don’t like the Chief, too bad, so sad, he’s appointed for life. Other department heads would never endorse. They are not political creatures, they have 5 year contracts with the city.
Two completely different things … city staff vs elected officials.