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Do we have a similar law in Ohio? School Board employees are allegedly making campaign phone calls from the city building during business hours.
RCW 42.52.180Use of public resources for political campaigns.
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(1) No state officer or state employee may use or authorize the
use of facilities of an agency, directly or indirectly, for the purpose
of assisting a campaign for election of a person to an office or for the
promotion of or opposition to a ballot proposition. Knowing
acquiescence by a person with authority to direct, control, or influence
the actions of the state officer or state employee using public
resources in violation of this section constitutes a violation of this
section. Facilities of an agency include, but are not limited to, use
of stationery, postage, machines, and equipment, use of state employees
of the agency during working hours, vehicles, office space, publications
of the agency, and clientele lists of persons served by the agency.
(2) This section shall not apply to the following activities:
(a) Action taken at an open public meeting by members of an elected
legislative body to express a collective decision, or to actually vote
upon a motion, proposal, resolution, order, or ordinance, or to support
or oppose a ballot proposition as long as (i) required notice of the
meeting includes the title and number of the ballot proposition, and
(ii) members of the legislative body or members of the public are
afforded an approximately equal opportunity for the expression of an
opposing view;
(b) A statement by an elected official in
support of or in opposition to any ballot proposition at an open press
conference or in response to a specific inquiry. For the purposes of
this subsection, it is not a violation of this section for an elected
official to respond to an inquiry regarding a ballot proposition, to
make incidental remarks concerning a ballot proposition in an official
communication, or otherwise comment on a ballot proposition without an
actual, measurable expenditure of public funds. The ethics boards shall
adopt by rule a definition of measurable expenditure;
(c)
The maintenance of official legislative web sites throughout the year,
regardless of pending elections. The web sites may contain any
discretionary material which was also specifically prepared for the
legislator in the course of his or her duties as a legislator, including
newsletters and press releases. The official legislative web sites of
legislators seeking reelection shall not be altered between June 30th
and November 15th of the election year. The web site shall not be used
for campaign purposes;
(d) Activities that are part of the normal and regular conduct of the office or agency; and
(e) De minimis use of public facilities by statewide elected officials
and legislators incidental to the preparation or delivery of permissible
communications, including written and verbal communications initiated
by them of their views on ballot propositions that foreseeably may
affect a matter that falls within their constitutional or statutory
responsibilities.
(3) As to state officers and employees, this section operates to the exclusion of RCW http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=42.17A.555" rel="nofollow - 42.17A.555 .
[2011 c 60 § 30; 2010 c 185 § 1; 1995 c 397 § 30; 1994 c 154 § 118.]
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