With the election just a few days away, Ive been thinking about the race for County Executive between Rich Fitzgerald and Mark Patrick Flaherty. Lasty week the Farety camp released a Fitzgerald email that they saw as damning and alarming. After reading the whole email and everything surrounding it, I wasn’t impressed or alarmed. It just seems like a last ditch effort by a losing politician to try and get ahead.
For all Flaherty’s attempts to paint himself as a good guy, the reality is he is just a calculating and scheming politician whose only real motivation is to get ahead. Is it possible that he has broken the law toward that end? This is from an exchange on Facebook:
The Flaherty TV commercials (about those obnoxious stickers) were PAC expenditures, using County employees, with County materials, a la our tax dollars. Arguably, it broke both State law and County Ethics Code. In Flaherty’s commercial about a gallon of gas, a County employee is in uniform – a collared shirt with the County crest and an official County identification badge. In Flaherty’s other commercial about a pound of meat, a County employee is in uniform – a collared shirt with the County crest, an official County identification badge, weights, and an official County inspection form, with the County Courthouse address, room 104. “Friends of Mark Patrick Flaherty” – that which is credited as funding the commercials – is a registered political action committee. State law defines it as an expenditure made for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election. Additionally, this directly violates Chapter 5 of Allegheny County Code of Ordinances (“Administrative Code”), Part 10 (“Personnel”), Article 1013 (“Political Activity; Accountability; Conduct and Ethics Code”), Section 5-1013.09 (“Standards of Conduct”), O. (“Political Activity”), 3, that “No covered person shall solicit, directly or indirectly, any employee reporting to such covered person to engage in political activity”. Mr. Flaherty is defined as a “covered person” in Chapter 5 (“Administrative Code”), Part 10 (“Personnel”), Article 1013 (“Political Activity; Accountability; Conduct and Ethics Code”), Section 5-1013.03 (“Definitions”, “COVERED PERSONS”, “All elected and appointed County officers, County officials and all County employees and members of County agencies”). The featured employee directly violates Chapter 5 (“Administrative Code”), Part 10 (“Personnel”), Article 1013 (“Political Activity; Accountability; Conduct and Ethics Code”), Section 5-1013.09 (“Standards of Conduct”), O. (“Political Activity”), 1, that “…Employees must engage in all such activities as private citizens, away from County workplaces, out of uniform…”More concisely, the Controller’s Office – with a consenting and present Controller – broke Ethics Code.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgYPOcSeZ-M[/youtube]
The City Paper alluded to this issue, or at least the potential scheming to create voter confusion, last year:
Is Allegheny County Controller Mark Patrick Flaherty a dedicated public servant educating his community — or a seasoned politician with his sights set on future ambitions?The question has arisen in recent weeks as Flaherty has taken to the television airwaves for three public-service announcements paid for through his political-action committee. The spots advertise his Weights and Measures division’s fraud hotline. They show a smiling Flaherty explaining his yellow “seal of certainty” on equipment, indicating its inspection by his office.
So, which candidate has created a real offense? One who has written a brash email, but done nothing wrong, or one who has violated the law as well as the Ethics Code?