You wanted to know if any Connecticut municipality bars its employees from holding local elective office. You also wanted a legislative history of CGS § 7-421, which permits municipal employees to run for state, municipal, or federal elective office.

SUMMARY

We are not aware of any Connecticut municipality that prohibits its employees from running for elective office. In fact, state law allows municipal employees to run for elective office and prohibits municipal employers from taking or threatening to take personnel actions against those who do. However, it is possible for a municipal employee to be barred under the federal Hatch Act from running for office in a partisan election. Regulations implementing the Hatch Act prohibit a local officer or employee from being a candidate for elective public office in a partisan election when the individual’s “principal employment is in connection with an activity which is financed in whole or in part by loans or grants made by the United States or a federal agency but does not include an individual who exercises no functions in connection with that activity. ” The federal prohibition does not apply to mayors or unclassified elected department heads (5 CFR §§ 151. 101 to 151. 122).

The rights of Connecticut municipal employees to engage in political activities were first protected in 1911 when the Connecticut General Assembly banned the removal, discharge, pay or rank reduction of officers or classified employees because of their religious or political opinions or affiliations. Although we know that the bill (HB 69) that became law received a public hearing and a favorable vote by the Judiciary Committee, there is no transcript of the hearing or meeting and no transcript of the subsequent House and Senate sessions. The absence of this documentation makes it difficult, if not impossible, to determine the intended scope of “political affiliation. ” This law is presently codified at CGS § 7-421.

Later amendments to the law imposed limitations on municipal employees political activities, especially during work hours. Local charters and ordinances also limited these activities. In 1976, the legislature passed PA 424, which explicitly stated the political activities municipal employees could and could not engage in. One prohibited activity was running for elective office in any political partisan election. Four years later, the legislature passed PA 80-325, which permitted municipalities to allow their employees to run for public office and established the state statute as the controlling authority on issues concerning municipal employees’ political activities.

In 1984, the Labor and Public Employees Committee heard and favorably reported SB 472, which upon passage of both Houses became PA 84-532. This act explicitly permitted municipal employees to seek election to municipal offices. The act also eliminated the authority of local charters and ordinances to prohibit classified employees from seeking elective office.

A review of public hearing and session transcripts reveal that the law was intended to create parity among municipalities in their treatment of employees who ran for public office. At the time the law passed, 52 towns prohibited their employees from running for elective office. Of particular interest at the time was the fact that just prior to the law’s passage, a Plainville police officer was not allowed to run for town council and a Waterbury firefighter was fired when he ran for mayor (House Session Transcript, May 7, 1984 and Labor and Public Employees Committee Transcript, March 12, 1984).

The General Assembly further eroded the limitation on municipal employees’ political activities when it passed PA 90-123. This act explicitly allowed municipal employees to serve on most appointed or elected local government body in towns where they lived and specified that municipal employees could run in partisan elections for federal or state office. The act also prohibited municipal employers from taking or threatening personnel action against employees because they run for office and extended the ban against on-the-job political activity to municipal employees seeking or holding state office.

STATE LAW ON POLITICAL ACTIVITY OF MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES

Municipal employees may seek and hold a federal, state, or municipal elective office; join and hold office in political parties, organizations, or clubs; campaign for candidates; and make political contributions. No employee can engage in these political activities or in the performance of the duties of an elective office while on duty or while he is expected to perform work for which he is being compensated by the town. (CGS § 7-421 to 7-421b).

A municipal employee elected to a full-time office is entitled to take an unpaid leave of absence for two terms or four years, whichever is shorter. The town may extend the leave and its terms and conditions, at its discretion. When the leave expires, the employee must be reinstated in his most recent position, given one with equivalent pay or another position, or a rehiring preference.

Municipal employees have the right to serve on any appointed or elected local government body in towns where they live, except (1) bodies responsible for supervising them directly as employees; (2) boards of finance; (3) bodies exercising zoning, land use, or planning powers; and (4) bodies regulating inland wetlands and watercourses. Exceptions 2 through 4 do not apply if a local charter, home rule ordinance, or adopted local ordinance explicitly allows an employee to serve or if he serves only in his capacity as a member of the town’s legislative body.

The law on municipal employees’ political activity supersedes any special act or local law, ordinance, or charter.

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