News-Record.com

The rules understandably protect the right of city employees to vote. All citizens should have that right. But with government work come reasonable and necessary restrictions in how overt that political activity can be.

City Manager Mitchell Johnson cites state law in defending employees' right to be politically active. The N.C. General Statutes say: "Every city employee has the civic responsibility to support good government by every available means and in every appropriate manner."

As Johnson sees it, the law protects the rights of city workers to take part in the democratic process away from work. Johnson wrote in a recent e-mail: "I feel that the state law clearly restricts our ability to govern the actions of our employees when they are off duty."

But isn't there also a need to protect the integrity of city government? And isn't a process that allows the kind of political activity spelled out in the city code a recipe for disaster? The opportunities for conflicts of interest and for patronage, big-city-style, are staggering.

As far as anyone can tell, no one has pressed the limits of those policies. We're knee-deep in vintage Latham Park raw sewage the day someone does.

What if city employees actively took sides in the Dianne Bellamy-Small recall election? What if Johnson, as city manager, endorsed one candidate over another in this fall's mayoral race?

Johnson makes it clear he wouldn't dare consider such a thing. After all, he's not stupid. The city manager serves "at the pleasure of the council"; choosing candidates would be professional suicide.

He also points out that the Code of Ethics of the ICMA, the professional organization of county, town and city managers, prohibits such behavior on his part. "Tenet 7" of the ICMA Code of Ethics declares that every member should "refrain from all political activities which undermine public confidence in professional administrators" and to "refrain from participation in the election of the employing legislative body."

So does Johnson hold himself to a different standard from his other employees, including department heads? And if so, why?

If you ask me, the ICMA Code of Ethics directly contradicts not only the city of Greensboro code but North Carolina law (depending on its definition of the word "appropriate").

Something needs to change, and it isn't the ICMA's code. If not, somewhere along the way an administrator or other city employee is going to test these rules and take a more up-front role in somebody's campaign.

It will be legal. And it will be wrong.