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By Mark Wallace
Elected officials, key stakeholders, and/or the media often ask some really tough questions regarding proposals or operational practices that put fire officials on the defensive. They expect us to have a logical and compelling explanation to all of their questions and at a moments notice. Therefore, it is helpful to consider the answers to their questions in advance.
The really tough question for this part of the series is:
How do we (or can we) keep our employees out of local political elections?
This question is a political quagmire. When asked, recent history will be preloaded with a variety of issues that may be rumbling within the community and/or the department. Questions will often arise just prior to or after an election. There are at least three perspectives in this situation. First, what are the local policies, regulations, or ordinances concerning employee participation in local elections? In other words, can, can an employee support a candidate running for an elected position where the “winner” is elected to a position that governs the fire department, such as a city councilmember, alderman, or member of the board of directors?
Second, can the local International Association of Fire Fighters, an association of department members, or an organization that includes department members such as a political action committee (PAC) support a local candidate or ballot issue?
And third, is it a good idea?
This article IS NOT legal advice. It is intended to be a primer or a place to start your analysis into the issue. When this issue arises, ask for advise from your department’s lawyer to make sure that you do not violate the constitutional rights of your employees. Once you get such advise, follow it. With few exceptions your employees will have had legal advise about their constitutional rights and may push the limits by their actions. There are, however, practical considerations involving this issue.
These issues will involve department or city policies, ordinances or resolutions that prohibit an employee of the department from supporting candidates or positions at any time for local elections. This would include everything from giving a monetary donation to one or more candidates to canvasing neighborhoods in support of a candidate or an election issue to accepting a yard sign at your home that supports a candidate or a ballot issue (signs both for and against). It also includes political photographs that portray your stations, equipment, personnel, logos, badges, and patches if they are staged or appear to have been staged in support of a candidate or ballot issue. A classic violation here is a campaign photograph showing the candidate on the side step of a fire engine surrounded by firefighters in uniform. The most contentious violation may be when a ballot issue specifically relates to the members of the department, such as a vote to adopt or not adopt “civil service” or a collective bargaining issue. Local elections are local, and they can create a great deal of angst and drama leading up to the election around a specific local community issue.
Considerations become more complex when a PAC, comprised of department members, decides to support a particular candidate or take a specific stance on a ballot issue. Although policies are clear for individual employees, the same is not the case for a collective of employees, such as those found in a PAC that supports a particular candidate in a local election or takes a position—for or against—a local ballot issue.
For example, PAC “X” may support a candidate for city council even though all of the PAC members are employees of the same city’s fire department, BUT Firefighter John Doe is prohibited from supporting the same candidate. PAC members can work on behalf of a particular candidate or a local ballet issue as long as it is the PAC and not the on-duty individual PAC members who are providing the same support. An individual can’t provide financial support to a candidate, but the member dues or even a special assessment paid to the PAC—who then forwards these funds to the candidate to support his election—is not prohibited as long as the check is from the PAC’s bank account and not from an individual member.
Pac members, so long as they identify themselves only as a PAC member and not as an employee of the fire department (even though that is usually obvious), can provide assistance such as distributing campaign signs or attending political events. However, all of these actions require strict compliance with the narrow parameters that allow public employees, through their associations, to participate in local elections. (Other than actually voting, this is a right that can’t be restricted by local policies, regulations, or ordinances.)
RELATED: Ricci on Politics in the Firehouse ‖ Graner on Politics and the Survival of the Fire Service ‖ Warren on The Drama of Politics in the Fire Service
Catching one member who forgets the rules can result in a career-ending problem. Such actions often cause turmoil within a community, to the detriment of the overall fire department. Even if the rules are strictly followed, the perception of wrongdoing often persists and creates controversy within certain portions of the community (such as those on the opposite side of an issue that was supported by the PAC or other employee association). This is why this issue creates such a quagmire; it is more of a lose-lose than either win-win or win-lose in the final determination.
The third question—“Is it a good idea?”—is the one that truly fuels the arguments and significant discussions involving local elections. If a PAC supports a particular candidate, and that candidate wins the election, the PAC members often believe that, because of their support, the newly elected official will support or is obligated to support improvements in wages, working conditions, or benefits to members. In reality, a seven-person policy board requires at least four votes on most issues unless a super-majority is required in the particular case in question. A ballot issue requires the majority of voters to support or oppose the issue in question. So, if the PAC’s position is not the winning position, the department loses support, often as a backlash to the PACs position prior to the election. Public perception of and support for the fire department by the community remains the best way to sway informed voters.
What happens when the candidate that the PAC supported loses the election? The result could be that the candidate they did not support will be less likely to support pay increases or other a variety of other things that would improve the fire department or the benefits to its members. The elected person’s voting record may not, in fact, be impacted by the PAC’s support for the opposition candidate, but each vote will be scrutinized and evaluated for any “payback” for those supporting the candidate or ballot issue that failed. It still takes a majority for most boards of elected officials to make a determination.
The really tough question for the fire chief here is how to keep members of the department neutral for all local elections. The answer is that you probably can’t. As chief, you can’t keep employee associations from participating in local elections if they choose to get involved. The best you can do is to provide updated information in the months prior to every local election on the organization’s policies, regulations, and ordinances. It’s then up to each employee to comply with the requirements. If they fail to follow the rules, they will suffer the consequences. They must be afforded the due process as defined by the organization, but if a complaint is sustained, the penalty for failing to comply should be a certainty and clearly articulated within the organizations policies and procedures.
The best situation we can hope for is to have an honest and open discussion prior to the local election season about the consequences of making the wrong choice and why is it a good idea to simply stay out of local elections. The result of such a discussion might result in an employee association’s decision to stay out of local elections. We can all hope that it is that simple, but this is often not the case.
The best advice for any employee may be to never say which candidate he supports or which side of an issue he is on prior to the election. After the election, you can always claim to have been supportive of the winner or the winning side of the issue.
In any case, consider this in advance of an issue arising during or after a local election.
Mark Wallace (MPA, EFO, CFO, FIFireE) is the author of Fire Department Strategic Planning: Creating Future Excellence. He is the former State Fire Marshal of Oregon and a former chief in Colorado and Texas. He currently operates Fireeagle Consulting (www.fireeagleconsulting.com). He wrote the planning chapter in the 7th edition Fire Chief’s Handbook, which was released in fall 2014.
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