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An Ordinance of the County of Allegheny, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending Division 1 of the Allegheny County Code of Ordinances, Article 1013, §5-1013.09, entitled “Standards of Conduct,” to include language that prohibits individuals who practice law on behalf of the County in County offices which receive federal funding from seeking independently elected office in a partisan election without first resigning his or her position.
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WHEREAS, the federal Hatch Act precludes local government employees from seeking office in a partisan election when those employees perform functions in connection with a federally financed activity; and
WHEREAS, County offices which prosecute or defend cases on behalf of the County in the criminal justice system do from time to time receive federal funding for various of the activities undertaken in those offices; and
WHEREAS, employees within these offices fulfill functions closely tied to the public trust in the criminal justice system, and it is vital to maintain this trust by ensuring that these employees are not perceived to use their positions as a means of campaigning for elected office; and
WHEREAS, the need to track employees' relationships to programs receiving federal funding in order to ensure full compliance with the Hatch Act, together with the intermittent nature of the funding in the offices involved in criminal justice practice, creates an administrative burden and increases the possibility of inadvertent Hatch Act noncompliance; and
WHEREAS, the Hatch Act specifically allows for local ethical restrictions upon employees to be more stringent than those contained within the Act;
The Council of the County of Allegheny hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1.
The Allegheny County Code of Ordinances, Division 1, entitled "Administrative Code," is hereby amended by adding a new subsection to §5-1013.09., O. “Political Activity,” as follows:
§5-1013.09. Standards of conduct....
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