You Can’t Work for the Mayor and Run for Public Office

Mayor Judith Flanagan-Kennedy was absolutely correct to release Gardy Jean-Francois from his position on her staff after he announced last week he is running for state representative against longtime representative Robert Fennell.

Had she not done so, Jean-Francois would have been unable in the strictest sense, to serve the people of this city without a bias.

Any way Jean-Francois looks at it, his run is incompatible with his job at city hall.

Does he not understand that he is not allowed to use the power of his association with the mayor’s office as a tool to get himself elected?

That is exactly the case here or would have been the case if Flanagan-Kennedy allowed Jean-Francois to remain in his position.

All the calls in the world to the Ethics Commission will not change Jean-Francois’s fate as the Ethic’s Commission deals with just that, ethical violations – and him being released by the mayor – does not rise to that standard.

The first and foremost rule about working for the mayor of this city is that you give all your time, everyday, to the job and to the people of this city.

Nowhere does it state in the city charter that you can work for the mayor and run for public office on city time.

That would not be an ethical violation. It would be a conflict of interest.

Jean-Francois will find that running for representative is a bit more difficult than working for the mayor.

Representative Robert Fennell is a long time, well liked, highly respected man of the people in this city. He is not invulnerable but he will be almost impossible to defeat for a first timer like Jean-Francois.

Jean-Francois says he thinks it is time for change.

The mayor agreed completely with that line.

He’s now out of a job and she’s got to busy herself finding another assistant.

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