{"id":2994,"date":"2010-01-29T13:43:30","date_gmt":"2010-01-29T19:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flovalleynews.com\/?p=2994"},"modified":"2010-01-29T13:43:30","modified_gmt":"2010-01-29T19:43:30","slug":"florissant-passage-of-bill-blocking-city-employees-to-campaign-gets-unanimous-approval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=2994","title":{"rendered":"Florissant: Passage of Bill Blocking City Employees to Campaign Gets Unanimous Approval"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Carol Arnett<\/strong><\/p>\n

In somewhat of a surprise move,\u00a0 the Florissant City Council last week “unanimously” passed a bill that would prohibit department heads and other city employees from campaigning in city elections or running for election in the city. The bill does not prohibit employees from campaigning in other elections, such as statewide elections or national elections.<\/p>\n

The bill was introduced at a previous meeting by Councilman Tim Lee. At that meeting, Lee noted that several other municipalities have similar laws.<\/p>\n

Mayor Robert Lowery was originally against the bill, with several council members telling various media outlets that he was lobbying against it.<\/p>\n

However, at Monday\u2019s meeting, Lowery stated that he would not veto the bill. \u201cI walked in here intending to sign this, and I will,\u201d Lowery said.<\/p>\n

Lowery added after the meeting that he thought the bill and the employees\u2019 involvement in elections was \u201cover-emphasized.\u201d He pointed to City Clerk Karen Goodwin as an employee who has never campaigned. \u201cShe told me after she started that she never wanted to, and she never has,\u201d Lowery said.<\/p>\n

Two people who had run for councilman and lost spoke against the bill. Greg Striebel, who narrowly lost to Mark Schmidt in Ward 8 in the last election, said he was surprised when he ran. \u201cI thought I could get some yard signs, and go meet my neighbors,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize I would be running against the entire administration and department heads.\u201d Striebel urged the council to pass the bill unanimously.<\/p>\n

Gregory Heise echoed Striebel’s sentiments. He ran last April\u00a0 in Ward 5. \u201cSeveral people refused to sign my ballot petition because city officials had already been by for my opponent,\u201d he said. He also said that he was followed by a city official as he went door \u2013 to \u2013 door. \u201cGovernment cannot be ruled by intimidation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

City Attorney John Hessel addressed concerns that some councilman said they had in defining city employees. \u201cThe bottom line is that if you do not get a W2 form, you are not an employee,\u201d Hessel said. \u201cIt does not apply to volunteers or contractors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hessel also added that the bill was written so that people could campaign for themselves, since the mayor and council members are city employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carol Arnett In somewhat of a surprise move,\u00a0 the Florissant City Council last week “unanimously” passed a bill that would prohibit department heads and other city employees from campaigning in city elections or running for election in the city. The bill does not prohibit employees from campaigning in other elections, such as statewide elections […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-florissant","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nFlorissant: Passage of Bill Blocking City Employees to Campaign Gets Unanimous Approval - flovalleynews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=2994\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Florissant: Passage of Bill Blocking City Employees to Campaign Gets Unanimous Approval - flovalleynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Carol Arnett In somewhat of a surprise move,\u00a0 the Florissant City Council last week “unanimously” passed a bill that would prohibit department heads and other city employees from campaigning in city elections or running for election in the city. 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