Fayette County Adopts New Policy For County Employees Who Run For Office

Fayette County Commissioners Court formally approved a new policy regarding County employees who run for office.

Mark Elvig, the candidate running against James Herbrich for County Attorney, brought up the policy at the Commissioners Court meeting three weeks ago. On Dec. 22, 2022, Elvig noted, the Commissioners had instructed staff to prepare a policy that would have required salaried employees who run for public office to account for time they spent on campaign activities during their regular working hours.

At the meeting three weeks ago, Elvig asked the Commissioners whatever became of the policy. Elvig had seen two of Herbrich’s timecards and said that there was no accounting of his opponent’s time spent on the campaign. One of the timecards showed seven hours of vacation, Elvig said.

Herbrich told the Record that he has been taking vacation hours whenever he spends time on his campaign during regular business hours.

Commissioners met last Thursday, Jan. 25, and one of the agenda items was to revisit their action from the Dec. 22, 2022 meeting.

“I don’t think that anyone can argue that the ball was dropped,” said County Judge Dan Mueller, who had not yet taken office when the Commissioners voted on the policy in Dec. of 2022.

The County Personnel Policy Manual already prohibited county employees from engaging in political activity while on duty. Last Thursday, Jan. 25, the Commissioners voted unanimously to insert new language into the policy manual that specifies employees must take vacation if they spend time on political activities when they would normally be on duty – just as Herbrich had been doing.

Assistant County Attorney Blake Watson advised the Commissioners that no changes were needed to the policy.

“The recommendation of our office is that we don’t make any amendments to the the current existing policy,” Watson said. “The reason is that our policy already accounts for what we are trying to accomplish here.”

Watson said that under the existing policy, any employee who takes any kind of personal time, including time for campaigning, must take vacation leave. Watson said he sought advice from the Texas Association of Counties, and they, too, advised against any changes to the current policy.

“If the Court would like to make a clarification amendment, I have proposed a very short sentence to be added to our policy that kind of reflects what’s already there,” Watson said.

The additional statement read: “Any county employee campaigning for public office shall take vacation leave to attend any campaign-related activities during any on-duty normal business hours as they otherwise are required to for any personal leave as provided in this handbook.”

Commissioners unanimously approved the amendment and it went into effect immediately.