It's only a federal law
The feds want Ogden Police Chief Jon Greiner's badge.It seems the U.S. government has a law that if you are on their payroll (Ogden's P.D. takes federal grants), then you can't run for elected office. Greiner got himself elected to the state Senate in 2006.
Chief/Sen. Greiner argues that he doesn't directly administer the department's federal money, so the so-called Hatch Law doesn't apply to him. But a U.S. Special Counsel attorney rejected Greiner's argument and is pushing hard to have the chief dumped.
A federal administrative law judge will make the final call in June. If Greiner is the bad guy — for lack of a better term, Ogden could be forced to pay the federal government two years' worth of the chief's salary — $210,000.
3 Comments:
I personally believe there's an appearance of a conflict of interest for the police chief of Utah's seventh largest city to be simultaneously a state lawmaker. It doesn't matter if he's as clean as a hound's tooth; it still looks bad.
My issue is that it shouldn't be a Federal call. The Feds have no business determining who Ogden's mayor is. The people of Ogden deserve first crack at this. This shows how intrusive and invasive the Feds can be.
But this is an issue that the State Legislature should examine in a future session. At the very least, a police chief should be required to take an unpaid leave of absence from his/her department before embarking on a term of service with the State Legislature.
The Hatch Act was enacted to discourage self-dealing by government bureaucrats.
Bureaucrats are motivated by money. But sometimes that's too obvious. Power is the next best alternative.
Review the bills that Senator/Police Chief Greiner has introduced during his tenure, and you will find that many would expand the power of the law enforcement-corrections-prison construction-industrial complex.
(I tried to post a similar comment on the Greiner situation on KSL's web site ... not approved by KSL.com's censor.)
I got a grant from the federal government for $12,000 in financial aid, see how you can get one also at
http://couponredeemer.com/federalgrants/
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