Request By:
Ms. Frankie Scott Hager
City Attorney
City Hall
Owensboro, Kentucky 42301
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of June 12 in which you refer to the policy of the City of Owensboro with respect to political activity on the part of its employees which is as follows:
"No city employee shall actively advocate or oppose the candidacy of any individual for nomination or election to any municipal office. An employee may participate in political affairs at other levels of government, provided such activity does not adversely affect the performance of duties."
Your specific question pertains to the right of uniformed city police and fire employees with respect to the abovestated policy as it relates to the provisions of KRS 95.017. This statute, which we will not quote, details what political activities uniformed city, county or fire employees can participate in while off duty and out of uniform. KRS 95.017 does not specifically mention the right of city employees to actively engage in political campaigns.
As we mentioned in our phone conversation, the provisions of KRS 95.470 as amended in 1978 do, in our opinion, permit such employees to actively engage in politics for or against a particular candidate as long as such activities are conducted on off-duty hours. Subsection (4) of the statutory provision reads as follows:
"(4) No member of either department shall be active in politics or work for the election of candidates while on duty." (Emphasis added.)
Pursuant to the 1978 amendment, this office has taken the position in OAG 79-211 and 79-225 that the referred to subsection permits police and fire employees in cities of the second and third class to become candidates for public office and thus engage in political activity during their off-duty hours. If they can campaign for themselves they can do so for others, and we now extend these opinions to include all forms of political activity on the part of such employees during off-duty hours because of the broad nature of the language used in subsection (4) of KRS 95.470 to the effect that what they cannot do "on duty," they may do off duty.
In view of this conclusion, our response to your related questions would be as follows: Policemen and firemen during off-duty hours would be permitted to solicit votes on behalf of individual candidates, and we see no basic legal objection to such employees identifying themselves as members of the police and fire departments while working at the polls on election day so long as they are not in uniform as the provisions of KRS 95.017 prohibits. The term "political groups" would include groups affiliated with any major or minor party as well as so-called independent parties.
In response to your last question which is your basic question, the policy of the city concerning activities on the part of police and firemen would be in violation of the terms of KRS 95.017 and particularly KRS 95.470.