Political Activities of EPA Employees (except Senior Administrators): Candidacy and Officeholding Part-Time Political Offices (Other than General Assembly Memberships)

Directions of the Board of Trustees of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for Implementing the Board of Governors' Policy on Political Activities of Employees

These directions apply to all faculty and EPA non faculty employees (hereinafter collectively referred to as employees), other than senior administrative officers.

 

The Chancellor shall be responsible for notifying all employees well in advance of both the procedures to be followed in pursuing, as well as the possible employment implications of, their involvement in political candidacy and officeholding, pursuant to the Board of Governors' Policy. Such measures shall include: (1) publication of a notice in documents that prescribe the terms and conditions of employment for the affected categories of covered University employment, e.g., handbooks and policy manuals if any; (2) distribution with paychecks, in advance of each pending political season, of reminders of Policy requirements to which employees are subject.

The Board of Governors' Policy states that any employee who becomes a candidate for election to a part-time office for which compensation is more than nominal presumably will engage in campaign activity that interferes with the satisfactory performance of his or her full-time employment responsibilities to the University. In the face of that presumption, the affected employee is accorded the options of (1) resigning in order to pursue political activity, or (2) seeking to demonstrate that, contrary to the presumption, he or she can and will structure campaign activities so as to assure that they do not conflict with University employment, or (3) seeking an appropriate leave of absence to enable the employee to pursue political activity.

The Board of Governors' Policy is designed to accomplish a timely resolution of questions about an employee's proposed involvement in activities that could conflict with University employment responsibilities. The purpose is to avoid, through advance planning, any situation in which an employee might neglect his or her duty and thereby disrupt service to students and other beneficiaries of the University enterprise, with consequent need for disciplinary action against the employee. The system established by the Board of Governors permits both the employee and the employer to identify potential problems in advance and to craft reasonable accommodations. Thus, it is essential that the procedures called for in the Policy be observed carefully.

An employee who fails or refuses to observe the procedural requirements of the Policy has violated the terms and conditions of his or her employment and is subject to disciplinary action. With the establishment of appropriate measures for providing notice of the Policy requirements, all covered employees will be presumed to know their obligations under the Policy.

A. With Respect to Officeholding

If a University employee is elected or appointed to a full-time public office, his or her employment ends automatically ("will be deemed to have resigned") upon the assumption of that office. The automatic termination of employment may be avoided only if the employee, prior to assuming the office, has sought and obtained permission for a leave of absence, not to exceed two years in duration. Since the relevant provisions of the Policy are self-executing, there is no occasion for disciplinary action in such a case.

If a University employee is elected or appointed to a part-time office for which compensation is more than nominal, holding the office is presumed to conflict with the satisfactory performance of University employment obligations, and the employee is obligated to resign upon assuming that public office. The required resignation may be avoided only if the employee, prior to assuming the office, follows prescribed procedures that result either in a finding that in fact there will be no conflict created by simultaneous officeholding and University employment or, alternatively, in the approval of a requested leave of absence. If an employee fails to follow the prescribed procedure or declines to resign after failing to rebut the presumed conflict or after being denied a leave of absence, disciplinary action may be brought against him or her for violation of the terms and conditions of his or her employment.

B. With Respect to Candidacy

Under the terms of the Board of Governors' Policy, if a candidacy for election to public office entails a presumed conflict with University employment, the affected employee is required to resign when he or she becomes a candidate. Resignation from employment may be avoided only if the employee, prior to becoming a candidate, follows prescribed procedures that result either in a finding that in fact there will be no conflict or, alternatively, in the approval of a requested leave of absence. If an employee fails to follow the prescribed procedure or declines to resign after being denied a leave of absence, disciplinary action may be brought against him or her for violation of the terms and conditions of his or her employment.

 

 

A. Timely Presentation of Petitions to Rebut the Presumption

With respect to an employee who intends to file as a candidate for a major part-time office in a race that requires a May primary contest, any petition designed to rebut the presumption of conflict of time must be filed with the Board of Trustees by no later than November 1 in the year preceding the May primary election.

With respect to an employee who intends to stand for election in November to a major part-time office, any such petition must be filed with the Board of Trustees by no later than July 1 of the election year.

B. Showings Necessary to Rebut Presumption of Conflict

An employee who wishes to campaign for a major part-time office and simultaneously maintain his or her full-time University employment must meet the burden of demonstrating that, contrary to the presumption established by the Policy, no conflict of time in fact will occur.

Attachment 1 is a sample petition that is to be used by all employees to display the requirements of time and, correspondingly, how campaigning would be fitted into the petitioner's total available personal time during a week.

C. Conditions Imposed Incident to Permitting Maintenance of Full-time Employment While Campaigning

If the Board of Trustees determines that an employee has successfully rebutted the presumption of conflict, the permission to continue full-time University employment may need to be attended by special conditions. For example, the employee may be required to maintain a daily log of time devoted to campaign activity, subject to periodic inspection by the employee's supervisor. By way of further example, in arranging the division of time between University duties and campaigning, a member of the instructional faculty should not be permitted to reschedule class meeting times or office hours for counseling students, if students thereby would be inconvenienced. Academic administrators shall monitor closely a faculty member's compliance with the terms of the understanding reached with the Board of Trustees, consistent with the Board of Governors' directions.

D. Leaves of Absence during Candidacy

If a University employee concludes or the Board of Trustees determines that engaging in a contemplated political campaign will prevent the employee from meeting full-time employment responsibilities, the employee may request a leave of absence, either partial or full, with corresponding reduction in or suspension of pay. The presentation of petitions in support of a request for such leave must follow the same schedule as prescribed above for efforts at rebuttal of presumed conflicts, that is, by November 1 with respect to May primary contests and July 1 for the general election. In fact, if an employee seeks to be excused from the resignation requirement by rebutting the presumption of conflict, his or her petition on that subject should be accompanied by a petition for leave, to address the contingency of a finding by the Board of Trustees that the presumption has not been rebutted.

Attachment 1 includes a petition form to be used by University employees to describe the nature and extent of leave requested, with accompanying representations from responsible University administrators about the feasibility of the proposal, that is, whether it would be possible satisfactorily to cover the duties of the employee while he or she was absent. If an employee seeks a partial leave of absence, the type of quantification effort described above, with respect to rebuttal of presumed conflict, would be necessary. A listing of duties to be performed and duties not to be performed would be required, which would account for the total full-time employment responsibilities of the employee; and, derivatively, a judgment then could be made about what percentage reduction in salary would be required.

In the context of faculty employment, the Board of Governors already is on record prohibiting a partial leave in the form of interrupting instructional responsibilities during an academic term; that is, if a faculty member is assigned a course to teach for a semester, he or she will not be permitted to discontinue the instruction of that course (actual teaching hours and directly related instructional responsibilities, such as advising enrolled students) part way through the term by using a substitute teacher.

The Board of Governors' Policy states that any employee who becomes an officeholder must insure that holding public office does not conflict with or detract from the satisfactory performance of University employment obligations. With respect to part-time officeholding, the Policy distinguishes between major offices (entailing compensation that is more than nominal) and minor offices (entailing nominal compensation), with corresponding presumptions about resulting conflicts with University employment. An affected employee who intends to hold such an office must pursue the same options concerning rebuttal of presumptions or leaves of absence as are applicable to candidacies for election. Attachment 1 includes provisions that address those questions. Because the deadline for filing petitions for leaves of absence is November 1, which precedes the usual date of the general election, a candidate for election in November must file his or her petition in advance of the election, on the assumption that he or she will be elected, so as to permit timely action by the Board of Trustees before he or she assumes office.

With respect to appointive officeholding, and subject to all other Board of Governors' requirements controlling political officeholding, if circumstances do not permit a prospective appointee to file a required petition on the schedule otherwise prescribed for prospective officeholders, the petition may be submitted to and resolved by the Chancellor for faculty and EPA non faculty personnel. In such cases, however, it remains University policy that the prospective appointee will lose University employment if he or she assumes the appointive office before receiving an affirmative response from the alternative decisionmaker. Thus, even under this expedited procedure, in some cases the prospective appointee may have to defer acceptance of the appointment beyond the normal starting date for the public office. When this alternative procedure is used, the Chancellor in each instance shall report the action taken to the Committee on University Governance of the Board of Governors through the President.

This Policy is maintained by the Office of the Vice Chancellor and General Counsel.