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Escambia Adopts HR Policy Requiring Employees To Quit Before Running For County Commission
May 20, 2022
The Escambia County Commission on Thursday formalized a human resources policy previously approved by ordinance that requires county employees to resign or take a leave of absence before running for a seat on the commission.
“There is really very, very rarely a time where it’s appropriate for a government to make determinations about who can and cannot, or how they should participate in the political process. As you move further and further down that road, you have a separation between the elected officials, the government itself, and the people that it governs,” District 2 Commissioner Doug Underhill said before the vote.
Underhill read from a state statute (F.S. 104.31) that he said prevents the policy.
“Curtailing out employees’ ability to be a nominee or participate in the election process in any way, I would consider to be a direct violation of that (statute),” he said.
District 1 Commissioner Jeff Bergosh said he found it interesting that Underhill dissented Thursday he “rushed to make the motion” for the actual ordinance approved in March. Bergosh said he policy has been vetted by the attorney, and the policy is found across the state among other governments.
“You are not saying they can’t do something. You are just stipulating as to not create a hostile work environment, to not create a dysfunctional work environment,” said Bergosh. “It’s very common.”
The complete text of the county policy is below.
Effective March 7, 2022, Escambia County, Florida, Ordinance 2022-13 states that an Employee is required to resign or take a leave of absence upon the date the Employee becomes a candidate for Elected Public Office for one of the five Commissioners’ districts of Escambia County, Florida. An Employee is prohibited from engaging in any activities in furtherance of seeking qualification as a Candidate on County time. Any Employee failing to timely comply with the requirements of this Policy will be subject to immediate termination by the Interim/County Administrator.
If the Employee chooses to take leave, the Employee may utilize all accrued Annual Leave, Paid Time Off, or Management Options Benefits before requesting Leave without Pay. This applies to all Employees who are in positions included in the Classified Service, Unclassified Service, and assigned Employees performing temporary labor services for the County on behalf of a temporary staffing agency. This applies to all Employees, whether full-time, part-time, temporary, paid volunteer, or volunteer.
As used in this provision, the terms Candidate, Employee, and Public Office shall be as defined in Sec. 2-66(a), Escambia County Code of Ordinances.
Comments
17 Responses to “Escambia Adopts HR Policy Requiring Employees To Quit Before Running For County Commission”
This is communism in Escambia County, never thought that I would see this type of behavior from an American elected official. EVERY SINGLE COMMISSIONER THAT VOTED FOR THIS SHOULD BE VOTED OUT OF OFFICE!!! I’M DISAPPOINTED IN YOU JEFF BERGOSH, I THOUGHT YOU WERE A BETTER MAN!!!!
This is shady and underhanded behavior by elected officials who only want to keep their jobs. I have no doubt that every one of the BOCC knows that this is wrong, but they do not care because they do not care about the citizens. Politicians only care about themselves and will do anything to stay on the money train. Vote them ALL out of office and start over with new people who are not career politicians.
Put Commissioner pay @ minimum
wage…then limit to 2 terms only. No
Pension. This is public Service for a
relatively short time frame. Plenty of
retired/wealthy folks available and competent
to do a good job ! Then increase the
number of commssioners to 10 which would
be 2 per District. Apparently some of the
current Commissioners have Other
JOBS …Why ?
I thought Commissioners had to abstain from voting for anything that would even be an appearance of a gain or loss. If an employee unseated a commissioner, that would be a financial loss to that sitting commissioner. But I have seen them abstain for less. I guess that only applies if it suits them.
I have some further questions..if the county employee takes a leave of absence without pay while running for county commissioner, can he/ she return to their former job without losing benefits/ salary reduction?? Why is this proposed for county commissioner position only?? If there is so much concern about conflict of interest in running for this office, what about those commissioners already in office that have other income producing jobs..should they be made to give them up?? As a former Civics teacher, I firmly believe in allowing the most qualified candidate every opportunity to run for any office..that should be the AMERICAN WAY OF GOVERNMENT.
The commissioners are running scared after trying to get more money on top of their 80K salary. They all need to be voted out!!
Consider who’s ACTUALLY creating a hostile work environment.
Just for fun, fire someone who dares run for political office.
Campaigning white you are supposed to be working is a different matter. That would be legitimate. But that isn’t what is said.
David for better people
An employee needs to file to run for commissioner and refuse to resign and when terminated, file a wrongful termination lawsuit. Lets see how the courts view this.
Good policy.
Underhill was a dweeb as usual, he made the motion to pass it, plus voted for it a few weeks ago and them when asked about it wouldn’t own up to it.
Enough drama with him trying to get his aide and BFF on the BOCC as well as his intern elected.
I will be surprised if someone doesn’t bring a lawsuit against the county. It should be enough to say no county resources will be used nor politicking done on county time and then enforce it.
“The Escambia County Commission on Thursday formalized a human resources policy previously approved by ordinance that requires county employees to resign or take a leave of absence before running for a seat on the commission.”
The above policy is now directed to those candidates who have plenty of money so they can afford to take a “leave of absence” and not suffer to bad monetarily. It also means that those who can afford to do this have power…and that power can work for us or against us. Who doesn’t know that money has power?
This is wrong. Are we in Russia? It virtually guarantees average joe state employee cannot afford to run for office. I think we need to reset this BOCC and fire them all.
This is totally wrong the BoCC doesn’t want anyone running against them.I will vote against my current commissioner. I’ll do a write in first.
Ridiculous that an employee who may potentially see wrongdoing, corruption, or mismanagement who could run for office to make a change for the better will be discouraged because he or she can’t afford to resign from the administrative assistant position, for example, before filing for the ballot. Basically, the BoCC just excluded some of its most knowledgeable potential opponents from running against them.
I work for a state utility in Escambia county and we are not allowed to run for ANY political position anywhere while in their employ or we are terminated with extreme prejudice, not kidding.
Arrogant, narcissistic, egotistical politicians need to be voted out in mass….they laugh at the disdain of voters because they believe they hold the real power….VOTE THEM OUT
Oh yeah keep that exclusivity! make it as difficult as you possibly can.