Phoenix government employees will be able to post political opinions openly on social media, starting Nov. 9.
Phoenix City Council decided in a unanimous vote Tuesday to allow wider political speech for city workers while off-the-clock and away from work.
Previously, the Phoenix City Charter said that city officials could not express their political opinions in any public venue, put campaign signs in their yards, sign nomination petitions for candidates, post political opinions about local city elections on personal social media outside of work or talk to their neighbors about city races, according to City Attorney Brad Holm.
Holm said the change will lift all of those restrictions.
Mayor Greg Stanton said the ordinance change does not alter the City Charter in any way. The ordinance would be used to broaden the scope of what the city believes is acceptable speech. An official charter change would require a vote from Phoenix residents.
Stanton said some may argue that the Phoenix City Charter has some parts to it that are unconstitutional for city employees, but the City Council could not deal with that issue during Tuesday’s meeting. He said the ordinance change would put the First Amendment rights of Phoenix government workers almost on par with Maricopa County and Arizona state government workers.
City employees will still be barred from donating to a city candidate’s campaign, working in the management or affairs of any city campaign, joining an organization whose primary purpose is to elect a candidate to the city and expressing opinions about city candidates while on duty or in uniform, according to Holm.
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District 5 Councilman Daniel Valenzuela and District 4 Councilwoman Laura Pastor spearheaded the changes. In a joint memo released by Valenzuela and Pastor, they said they wanted to clear ambiguity and provide city workers with a heightened ability to express their political beliefs.
“We believe it is important to clarify which activities are protected, appropriate and do not cross the line from normal constitutional expression into conflict of interest,” their statement read.
District 2 Councilman Jim Waring was concerned that it seemed like the change could give District 3 Councilwoman Debra Stark an unfair advantage over challengers because her former employees with the city could campaign for her online right before the election. Stark was previously the planning director for the city and Maricopa County.
Stark said that was not her purpose and that she would be happy to push the enactment of the ordinance to any point after the election, to not give herself an unfair advantage. Valenzuela then requested to make sure the enactment of the ordinance would be Nov. 9 — one day after the election.
Waring also said he was concerned the change could let city workers criticize council members without council members being able to respond back.
“I have always found myself hamstrung,” Waring said. “I thought the City Charter precluded me from really criticizing city employees.”
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Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher said council members did — and will continue to — have the ability to defend themselves against criticism but can’t directly tell individuals they need to be fired.
“Could you write out the words I can use in the future?” Waring asked.
Waring said the impression he had since his first day in office was that he would be unable to respond to criticism from employees. But he wanted to make it clear that he was in support of the change to the ordinance, saying it didn’t go far enough.
Waring proposed that the City Council make an amendment to the City Charter to make it more lenient on government officials and let Phoenix residents vote on it in the March election.
Steve Beuerlein, president of the United Phoenix Firefighters Association, said the initial restrictions laid out in the charter were wrong and he thanked the city council for proposing the change, quoting the First Amendment.
“City of Phoenix employees should not have any of their First Amendment rights abridged just because they are employed by the City of Phoenix,” Beuerlein said.
Contact the reporter at Kmlane5@asu.edu.
