the hatch act and local utilities

[jcerockwood]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Tennessee

Do local electric utility employees fall under the hatch act? We are in Tennessee and the power is generated by TVA.

 

[FlyingRon]

You'd have to ask your employer. Even state/local government employees can be affected if their positions are funded by federal employees. TVA employees certainly are subject to the act. Not knowing the nature of your employment or your exact employer I couldn't tell you. Your HR department certainly knows.

Note the Hatch Act isn't as all encompassing as people think. As long as you are not running for public office yourself or collecting funds and you're not doing campaign work on government time or in government facilities, you're pretty much free to participate in the political process. Most of the rest of the Hatch Act has been pretty much gutted since it was established in the 1930s.

Note the Hatch act is named after former New Mexico senator Carl Hatch, who is unrelated to the present Utah senator Orrin Hatch.

 

[jcerockwood]

The reason I ask is that the office manager of our local utility uses his office and position to make political calls to solicit votes for candidates. He's running for mayor again in our town he had to set out one cycle because of term limits. I'm not suggesting that he can't run for office but that he should not be allowed to use his utility position, resources and time for political activity. As you can imagine in a small southern town we have a good ole boy network, this guy's the head. When a complaint was made the utility manager that the employee actively campaigned for a Circuit Court Judge candidate from his office nothing was done. The manager ask an attorney with a firm that had also very vocally supported that candidate, who advised his that it was a minor offence of little consequence and suggested no action be taken against the employee. She further noted that the person who had complained should not be allowed to address the utility board as her opinion was biased. I say this is good old boy BS. I'm not an attorney. The person who complained is my friend and I'd like to provide a little sounder footing for her complaint so that if she's forced to find an attorney or go to the press she'll be taken a bit more credibly.

 

[quincy]

The reason I ask is that the office manager of our local utility uses his office and position to make political calls to solicit votes for candidates. He's running for mayor again in our town he had to set out one cycle because of term limits. I'm not suggesting that he can't run for office but that he should not be allowed to use his utility position, resources and time for political activity. As you can imagine in a small southern town we have a good ole boy network, this guy's the head. When a complaint was made the utility manager that the employee actively campaigned for a Circuit Court Judge candidate from his office nothing was done. The manager ask an attorney with a firm that had also very vocally supported that candidate, who advised his that it was a minor offence of little consequence and suggested no action be taken against the employee. She further noted that the person who had complained should not be allowed to address the utility board as her opinion was biased. I say this is good old boy BS. I'm not an attorney. The person who complained is my friend and I'd like to provide a little sounder footing for her complaint so that if she's forced to find an attorney or go to the press she'll be taken a bit more credibly.

Following is a link to the TVA's Code of Conduct: http://www.tva.gov/foia/pdf/code_of_conduct.pdf

You can read through the entire pdf file but you should find answers to your questions on TVA employees and the Hatch Act on pages 18, 19 and 20 of the file.