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JLMC debates political-activity policy for legislative staff; edits and ethics review requested
Summary
The Joint Legislative Management Committee discussed a draft policy on legislative-staff political activity Oct. 9, agreeing to narrow some prohibitions and to do further ethics research before taking a vote at a November meeting.
The Joint Legislative Management Committee on Oct. 9 considered a draft human-resources policy intended to govern political activity by legislative staff, but members deferred a final vote after several raised concerns the draft was overly broad.
A policy presenter summarized the draft’s aim: to preserve public confidence in nonpartisan legislative staff while respecting employees’ free-speech rights. The presenter said the document’s preamble and definitions try to “toe that line between permitting as much as possible and seeing what does end up being improper,” and emphasized the difficulty of listing every permitted or prohibited action.
One change already made to the draft removed a provision that would have told staff how to testify before the General Assembly in a personal capacity; the presenter said legislators had expressed discomfort with staff giving personal testimony because it could undermine the appearance of impartiality.
Members expressed divergent views on how restrictive the remaining prohibitions should be. Representative James said the draft “outlines too many things for me” and argued it risks chilling lawful outside political participation. Other members, including Senator Brock, warned that permitting staff to run for local office raises potential conflicts if those local officials later lobby or vote on matters before the legislature; the presenter said such circumstances may be governed by the state ethics code and could require recusal rather than a blanket prohibition.
The draft’s prohibitions already include the usual government-employee limits—using official authority or resources for partisan purposes, soliciting campaign contributions during work, or organizing political meetings on the job—while allowing offline activities such as voting, displaying personal political paraphernalia off-premises, and contributing money to candidates.
Members reached three follow-up decisions instead of taking a vote: staff will refine language to remove an especially broad clause on attending political meetings (a small edit—placing a period after “attending political rallies and meetings”), committee staff will research the ethics implications raised by Senator Brock, and the group will revisit the policy at a November meeting. No new prohibitions were adopted at the Oct. 9 session.
The committee chair said the committee would continue work in mid-November and invited members to submit edits in advance.
