A slippery slope indeed

it was not that long ago that Travis Maddox was requested to leave the employ of his city job under the very provision of which I have posted below. This section is taken directly from SPFG city charter.

Recently a committee was formed to help the effort of voting YES on the proposed police/fire pension tax which will be on the ballot on FEB 3rd. In this committee are various police and fire officials(employees)which have not yet been asked to resign the positions within this committee or lose there employ. Personally I think 6.11 needs to be rewritten in a manner which allows city employees to be able to voice there 1st amendment rights while they are not on duty even if it means they put candidate signs in there front yards or issue signs. However the city can not have it both ways in this issue and I believe the highlighted section in the charter language is quite possibly where police and fire personnel could get into trouble. Are we seeing two different issues on this or has the meaning been implied to mean something completely different.

I'd be the first one to want to see anyone get fired or relieved of duty over issues regarding politics in or out of office, but until changes can be made to certain sections of the charter I would like to see it used equally. The sheer fact that police and fire personnel have and are part of this formation committee will bring in donations to help convince the voters to vote YES on this issue. The highlighted section below is thus being broken by the members with the spirit of how this charter issue is written.

Section 6.11. Prohibitions

No person in a classified service or seeking admission thereto, shall be appointed, promoted, reduced, removed, advanced, or retarded on any basis for any reason other than qualifications, merit, and fitness for the service or lack thereof. Any such actions shall be taken wholly without favoritism or discrimination and on no basis other than provided herein. No person shall willingly or corruptly make any false statement, certificate, mark, rating, or report in regard to any test, certification, or appointment held or made under the personnel provisions of this Charter, or in any manner commit or attempt to commit any fraud preventing the impartial execution of such personnel provisions or other rules and regulations made thereunder. No appointive salaried officer or employee of the city shall continue in his position after becoming a candidate for nomination or election to any public office. No person seeking appointment to, or promotion in, the classified service shall either directly or indirectly give, promise, render, or pay any money, service, or other valuable thing to any person for, or on account of, or in connection with, his test, appointment, proposed appointment, promotion, or proposed promotion. No appointive salaried officer or employee of the city shall make any monetary contribution to the campaign of any candidate for city office. No appointive salaried officer or employee of the city shall during the hours when he is on duty engage in any form of political activity calculated to favor or improve the chances of any political party or any person seeking or attempting to hold political office, nor shall he engage in any political activity when not on duty to such an extent that his efficiency during working hours will be impaired or that he will be tardy or absent from his work. No appointive salaried officer or employee of the city shall directly or indirectly solicit or receive subscriptions or contributions of money for any candidate for city office, a campaign committee for any such candidate or on behalf of any person or committee when there is an election issue which involves an election to be held by the city or by the county clerk on behalf of the city. However, the prohibition against the receipt of contributions shall not apply to any such employee who holds an office in a political organization and receives money in the course of his duties in said office. No appointive salaried officer of employee of the city shall solicit any monetary contributions to the campaign funds of any candidate for office or to the campaign funds of any political organization when such funds are to be used to support candidates directly or indirectly. No appointive salaried officer or employee of the city shall use his official title or job designation in the form of any political activity calculated to favor or improve the chances of any political candidate or any person seeking or attempting to hold political office. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the exercise of the rights of the appointive salaried officers or employees as citizens to express their opinions and to cast their votes.

Approved by vote of the people April 4, 1978.