Questionable ethics of public safety employees' campaign flyer. 

Two weeks ago, I reported that a political flyer from Vallejo Firefighter and police associations violated California law. It pictured uniformed police officers and firefighters supporting political candidates. I presumed the public safety associations and their supported candidates did not know about the law when they violated it.  

I expected that the public safety associations and the candidates would at best immediately apologize to Vallejo residents for this misuse of city employees and equipment on their behalf. However, I suspected they might not accept responsibility and ignore the issue as the better way to kill it. What I did not expect was to receive the offending flyer again two weeks later in the mail.

In a letter to the newspaper, Joe Athey of Vallejo took exception to my comments about the public safety employees associations’ political flyer.  I rarely respond to those type letters, because readers have a right to their opinion. This time is different, because Athey says things that confuse issues about this election.

California Government Code 3206 says, “No officer or employee shall participate in political activities of any kind while in uniform.”  The letter writer claims this statute has been construed to mean live political activities. He did not cite the legal authority for this interpretation and I doubt that he is right.

He says that flyers are exempt from this law. Even, if this is true, this flyer includes a picture of uniformed officers supporting their preferred political candidates. Therefore, the picture in the flyer still shows them in a live political activity.

Next, he claims uniforms are exempt if they are generic to the job and not the city or place. Vallejo police officers’ uniforms and firefighter uniforms represent the authority of the city. An officer or firefight acts and speaks with the authority of city government when they do so in uniform. City residents must obey and cooperate under penalty of law. The purpose for Gov. Code 3206 is to separate when those officers express their First Amendment right of free speech from when they speak with government authority.  

Athey says none of the buildings or vehicles used was city assets. I will have to accept his word that this is true, because I did not check them personally. I cannot even say as a fact that the uniformed people pictured were Vallejo police officers or firefighters.

I am a law-abiding citizen who respects Vallejo police officers and firefighters.  I accepted that the picture in the political flyer represented the message it suggested to voters that on-duty public safety officers supported particular candidates.  If they used props and staged a scene to give voters a false impression, then the deception is on them.

I will admit that I fell for the deception if the picture was other than what it represented. However, Vallejo voters should not have to act as detectives and notice that the people pictured hide the markings on the vehicles and that they show no visible badges. Vallejo voters should be able to know by seeing the Vallejo Firefighters Association and the Vallejo Firefighters Association seals on the flyer that the included pictures represented true police officer and firefighter activity.  

I do not know if what writer Athey claim about police and firefighter associations using props in the flyer is true or not true. It does not matter, because the intent to use the authority of their uniforms to influence an election remains the same. It is only worse if they knew the law and intentionally used props to try to get around it and to confuse voters.

I reported the law as written and explained the reason for it. The people who claim it means something different have the obligation to prove it with legal references and logic.

A precondition for holding office should be a candidate’s willingness to respect and obey all laws. Voters can learn something about candidates by how well they conform to campaign law. I would make a supporting or condemning statement about this flyer if I were one of the candidates supported in the flyer.

There is both the spirit and letter of law. Both the letter and the intent of this law are to prevent government authority from influencing elections. Police power is one of the biggest potential sources of government abuse were it allowed in political campaigns.  This flyer represents the introduction of police authority in a political campaign.  Vallejo voters are the final arbiters on this particular issue.

Kenneth Brooks is an independent writer. Contact him at P.O. Box 882, Vallejo, CA 94590.  opinion@ethicalego.com