Does anyone know much about whether TEES employees can use their computers and such for political campaigning?

Someone named Sarah Tobolah sent out a Word doc pumping the three Eastside NIMBY-crats. Inside the doc it says she works at TEES Personnel Services.

I did a quick web search and found this:
TAMUS Ethics Policy, item 7.5 on page 5

quote:

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Use of TAMUS Funds or Property: No TAMUS employee shall expend or authorize the expenditure of any TAMUS funds, services or supplies for the purpose of financing or otherwise supporting the candidacy of a person for an office in the legislative, executive, or judicial branch of state government or of the government of the United States, or influencing the outcome of any election, or the passage or defeat of any legislative measure.
No appropriated funds may be expended for the payment of full or partial salary of any employee who is also required by Tex. Govt. Code Chpt. 305 to register as a lobbyist. TAMUS facilities may be used as polling places for local, state, and national elections.

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That seems pretty clear that she should not be doing this stuff on TEES time or on TEES computers. This doesn't strike me as a "firing offense", but what is a good way to communicate to the powers-that-be that there might be a problem here?

[edit: bold text is mine for emphasis]

[This message has been edited by code_dog (edited 4/22/2008 10:18p).]

Would it be sufficient to speak with her directly about it, or does TEES policy require that it be reported to a manager?

You're pretty much morally obligated to report it in the TAMU system.

**disclaimer: not in HR, but worked as a secretary for an HR office/business office for one of the largest departments on campus and am a current A&M employee who took the ethics training thing recently**

Forward it to HR I think is the proper response

I guess that means no "Vote for Code Dog" emails from my TEEX account.

The real kicker is Sarah is IN HR.

I received it, too. She sent it to the members of the CSNAC (CS Neighborhood Association Coalition) and other HOA representatives. I was interested in becoming part of the NAC, but as it turns out it is mostly (if not all) Eastsiders, and the group has become decidedly political -- much to the chagrin of some leaders/members of the group. See exhibit A, Sarah's email.

Here's a copy of the flier she sent, which I've been told violates campaign rules since it does not state what legally registered group is distributing the flier.


[This message has been edited by 99_aggie_grad (edited 4/22/2008 10:49p).]

Send it to her superior and up the chain.

Maybe if the email were larger that a size 4 font, people who don't have their glasses handy could read it.

Check the Metatags on the doc (or look at the preoperties) I bet it will show you if it was created on a work or home PC as well.

I dunno...last year someone questioned John Happ driving an Easterwood pickup truck to a polling place. If I'm not mistaken it was revealed that Happ drove an official vehicle 24/7 due to emergency readiness preparedness requirements at the airport, but he nonetheless stopped driving it later.

Seemed like a legit question then, seems like a legit question now....regardless of what your political views are.

Just my opinion.

TLIAC, here's the riveting text:
John Crompton supports...
Neighborhood Integrity: Provide neighborhoods with the opportunity and the tools to preserve and direct how their areas look and function.
Fiscal Conservatism: Those who benefit from services should pay for them.
Making Growth Pay for Itself: Current taxpayers massively subsidize new growth. That is not fair.
Alleviating Traffic Congestion: Supports creation of a dedicated fund for transportation and expansion of hike and bike trails
Enhance Attractiveness and Ecological Sustainability: John initiated the major "College Station Green" initiative. Enhance streetscape by conceptualizing "roads" as "parkways"; develop new and enhance existing parks; and preserve trees.
"High-End" Economic Development: Selective targeting at high tech and R&D companies, and affluent retirees.

Dennis Maloney supports...
Neighborhood Integrity: Improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods by: 1) Code Enforcement should be proactive rather than reactive, 2) Provide the tools needed to preserve the character of our neighborhoods. 3). And for the newer neighborhoods, provide them the option to create covenants that address redevelopment and lifestyle issues.
Growth & Development: New development should be guided by a comprehensive plan created by all stakeholders in our city, infrastructure in place before development occurs and paid through impact fees, and vested homeowners included as partners at bargaining table. Update parkland dedication policy provide incentives for developers to value green spaces and discourage clear-cutting development sites.
Taxes: Lobby to restrict annual county tax appraisal increases to the rate of inflation or 5%, whichever is less. (Current law allows appraisals to increase 10% each year. At that rate, your property taxes double every eight years even when the tax rate remains the same!)
Transportation: Let’s look at transportation as a complete system, not simply an issue of building roads. Let’s be guided by a common sense philosophical principal that states: “The best transportation plan is the one that requires the least transportation.”
Partnerships with Small Business: It is time for College Station to form a Small Business Advisory Board to work, listen and learn from existing businesses and improve their chances of success and to keep them within our city.
Economic Development: Recruit major businesses that pay the average worker a living wage with benefits so the taxpayer is not subsidizing the housing, education, and health needs of those workers.

Lawrence “Larry” Stewart supports...
Neighborhood Integrity: includes Architectural Control, Quality of Life issues, and oh yes, Single Family Dwellings, not boarding houses.
Development: includes commercial, industrial, apartments, and residential subdivisions, all performed in a responsible manner, not constructed topsy-turvy in a rush to make a buck.
Property Rights: means the rights of the landowners to the bounty of their land, not the developers right to use such available land in whatsoever manner as they see fit.
They Support Neighborhoods, Let’s support them and VOTE!

quote:

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I dunno...last year someone questioned John Happ driving an Easterwood pickup truck to a polling place. If I'm not mistaken it was revealed that Happ drove an official vehicle 24/7 due to emergency readiness preparedness requirements at the airport, but he nonetheless stopped driving it later.

Seemed like a legit question then, seems like a legit question now....regardless of what your political views are.

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You know you are talking about Colonel John Happ(as he likes to be refered to).

Marked for future ownage.

What exactly would be the violation? Did she sign it with her title at TEES included in the document? Did the properties of the document show the owner to be a TEES employee? Did she send it from a TEES email account?

The above are really the only way I could see this being a violation.

Someone brought up the Happ thread from last election:
http://www.texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?forum_id=35&topic_id=876084

It's pretty stupid if she sent a mass distributed e-mail with this document from her TAMU account. That's a big no-no. I wouldn't want the lady fired. Maybe just get a gmail account for this type of stuff.

Actually,

You can send political emails via a university mail account if the following criteria are met.

1) Was done on your own time
2) Used no financial or physical resources
3) Does not use a university letterhead, phone # or mail address (including email/web) as the correspondance address.

If she was sitting at home and sent a Word Document out as an email via her university address and listed a politico disclimer and listed a differnet correspondance email or web page, then she didn't violate the letter of the law.
However, ethics may have been breached and it was pretty stupid to send it via a campus email address. They should have used a private email.

I know the lady that wrote that policy. She'd say that this is specifically prohibited by not one, but three System Policies. In addition, the the ethics policy says: "employees shall act impartially and not give preferential treatment to any private or public organization or individual." The big kicker that gets lots of people in trouble because it's a free ticket for management to smash you if you need it is from the same policy and says, "TAMUS employees shall endeavor to avoid any actions that would create the appearance that they are violating the law or the ethical standards of TAMUS."
In the old days, we'd just slap this lady on the hand with a quick email and trust her to comply.

[This message has been edited by la patrona (edited 4/23/2008 8:07a).]

La Patrona (love the name), this offense hardly warrents firing the lady and I suspect that she has or will receive some sort of fairly simple reprimand. System policies do not require anyone to give up their constitutional rights; however, they do prohibit the use of resources (physical, fiscal and human) for political purposes. These policies are rooted pretty firmly in both state and federal laws.

This has actually happened to me. I subscribe to the Progressive listserv and I responded to an email from my work email address. Someone received the email, made copies and sent it to Gates and my boss with a nasty letter saying that I was using TAMU resources to express my political views. And yes, I was reprimanded. I personally wouldn't turn her in for it just because I've been in that situation.

I seem to remember one of the NIMBY'ers filing a complaint against Happ for going to a poling place in a university vehicle.

Timing is everything.

Where exactly in this post does it say she used her work resources to prepare or send this email?

quote:

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She is in HR, has training, and still does this. Duh. This woman definitely needs some kind of reprimand.

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Kinda like that Pete Baty from Transportation Services and his sexual harassment of other girls.

Nothing is going to happen to these people, mostly because they are "The Man" and they don't stick it to themselves.

I don't really have a horse in this race other than the fact she used an organization I am considering joining to funnel her lobbying efforts. I didn't even notice she was a TEES employee. I'm not in the public sector so I don't give a lot of thought to what kind of email goes to/from someone's work email account.

That said, here's the info I have.

She sent an email to one person from her TEES account dated 4/10/2008 at 9:51am. Attached to her email is the document captured in my earlier post. Part of the email is about what idea she has for CSNAC (good idea -- send letter to real estate companies reminding them of strictly enforced single-family neighborhoods) and part of it is pimping the "3 preferred candidates". She notes the attached flier is a draft. Her full work email signature is included at the bottom of the email.

[This message has been edited by 99_aggie_grad (edited 4/23/2008 1:57p).]

There are still waaaaay too many people in this world who don't have a personal email address.....and use only their work one.

Gmail, Yahoo (eek), and even Hotmail (eeeewwwww) are all free....but "they" don't see the reason/need.

Angry Beaver said:

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Quote:

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She is in HR, has training, and still does this. Duh. This woman definitely needs some kind of reprimand.

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Kinda like that Pete Baty from Transportation Services and his sexual harassment of other girls.

Nothing is going to happen to these people, mostly because they are "The Man" and they don't stick it to themselves.

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r145/ep_12_00/Worldwide/flag_united_states_texas.gif http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r145/ep_12_00/Worldwide/flag_united_states.gif http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r145/ep_12_00/Worldwide/flag_mexico.gif http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r145/ep_12_00/Worldwide/flag_belize.gif http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r145/ep_12_00/Worldwide/flag_guatamala.gif http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r145/ep_12_00/Worldwide/flag_el_salvador.gif http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r145/ep_12_00/Worldwide/flag_honduras.gif http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r145/ep_12_00/Worldwide/flag_nicaragua.gif http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r145/ep_12_00/Worldwide/flag_costa_rica.gif http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r145/ep_12_00/Worldwide/flag_panama.gif

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nwspmp said:

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Angry Beaver said:

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Quote:

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She is in HR, has training, and still does this. Duh. This woman definitely needs some kind of reprimand.

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Kinda like that Pete Baty from Transportation Services and his sexual harassment of other girls.

Nothing is going to happen to these people, mostly because they are "The Man" and they don't stick it to themselves.

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https://www.theeagle.com/news/crime/former-texas-a-m-employee-accused-of-hiding-video-camera/article_b55fbd7a-784a-11e9-8895-07bb5c1981c1.html

Whoa.

TexAgs - First on everything.

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That is all equally awesome, funny, and sad somehow.

nwspmp said:

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Angry Beaver said:

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Kinda like that Pete Baty from Transportation Services and his sexual harassment of other girls.

Nothing is going to happen to these people, mostly because they are "The Man" and they don't stick it to themselves.

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https://www.theeagle.com/news/crime/former-texas-a-m-employee-accused-of-hiding-video-camera/article_b55fbd7a-784a-11e9-8895-07bb5c1981c1.html

Whoa.

TexAgs - First on everything.

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Was this guy ever sentenced?