Steelman report: Are employees working for free?
There’s an interesting oddity in Treasurer Sarah Steelman’s April filing with the Missouri Ethics Commission in her campaign for the Republican nomination for governor. Other than paying consultant Jeff Roe’s firm, she doesn’t pay for any employees.
Early in the campaign, Steelman made a splash by announcing the hiring of a couple of Washington D.C. heavy hitters. But the campaign hasn’t paid either of them any money. Steelman spokesman Doug Gaston says that’s because they haven’t submitted any invoices. He says the consultants aren’t on retainer.
But the case of Gaston is more interesting. He’s been working with the campaign full-time, but according to state records he’s still earning his full salary with the state as deputy treasurer. In fact, he just got paid this week. Gaston says that’s because he has earned about six weeks vacation time from his state job and he’s been taking vacation to work on the campaign.
But the campaign hasn’t paid him. So is he volunteering? No, Gaston says. He says he expects to be paid soon. “I had saved up about six weeks of vacation,” he says. “It’s my poor man’s way of contributing.”
Later this week, Gaston says, he will run out of vacation time, and will be taking a leave from the treasurer’s office and work for the Steelman campaign full-time. But he says he still expects to do some work for the state, on a volunteer basis.
Gaston says there are some duties that require either the treasurer or deputy treasurer to be involved in, such as sitting on various boards. He said he’ll perform those duties and not be paid by the state.
To all you lefties who smell a rat here … grow up! The guy had a bunch of accrued vacation time, and he’s entitled to use it for whatever he wants. And as to why he isn’t listed as an in-kind contribution … I challenge you to show me other candidates who list volunteers on their disclosures as in-kind contributions. It just isn’t done.
What a state employee does with vacation time is their own business. That said, if a state employee uses their lunch hour to sit on a chair paid for with state funds and do campaign work, they have used state equipment for campaign work and can go to jail for the action.
Campaigns have to go past the letter of the law or pay the price. Even if the employee works 60 hours a week on state business, better not touch campaign work between 8am and 5p, M-F.
Wrong Debbie. Wrong Nick. Doug was on paid vacation so technically he was paid to campaign, didn’t you see the whole part about how he got a check this week? When you go on campaign you go on leave, not vacation. I want my tax dollars back. On second thought, knowing his work product, (immigration numbers anyone?) ensuring we are rid of Sarah Steelman is probably the best use of Doug’s salary my tax dollars have ever seen.
Go Doug Go.
I never knew that what a person does on their vacation could be controlled by law.
Why doesn’t Messenger look into the case a little further and try to determine if he was on vacation? If he really was on vacation, there isn’t even a story here.
Sorry, What?, but you are just wrong. When you are on vacation, you can do whatever you want. You aren’t “on the clock” for vacation time, nor are you being paid for working during your vacation. And of course you get a check when you’re on vacation - that’s the whole point of vacation.
If a state employee uses his vacation time to go on a missionary trip, the state isn’t “paying for missionaries.” If he uses it to work in his garden, the state isn’t paying him to garden. And if he uses it to volunteer for a political campaign, the state isn’t paying him to campaign. Your employer can no more tell you what to do on vacation than they can tell you what to do on your days off. Is it a violation of “separation of church and state” when state employees go to church on Sunday?
If he took even a single campaign related phone call during business hours before he went on vacation, that would be illegal. But this isn’t.