Heaven forbid, that they actually meant to break the law.
The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office has issued a Notice of Proposed Civil Penalty against Jon Nelson, the Corvallis City Manager, and four other city employees for violating Oregon election law during last year’s referendum on the city’s telecommunication tax.
Oregon law prohibits public employees from promoting adoption or defeat of a measure while on the job during working hours, and forbids other persons from requiring public employees to support or oppose a measure.
According to the Secretary of State’s Office, the City Manager and other city employees illegally advocated in support of the telecommunications tax during work hours by sending biased newsletters to city residents, publishing biased materials on the city website, and publishing a biased explanatory statement on the city’s website after being told by the Secretary of State’s Office that it was against the law to publish the statement in the voters pamphlet.
The city officials are being allowed to appeal the Secretary’s “Notice”. I can guarantee that they’ll try and play it off as “they didn’t realize” or that they “thought that they were being fair” or some other lame excuse.
Fire them all. No excuses. Then, jail them.