New ethics policy divides Montco leaders

Amid raging tempers and threats of lawsuits, the Montgomery County commissioners yesterday barred scores of county employees from political activities.

The commissioners voted, 2-1, to prohibit nearly 200 workers from running for office, doing political fund-raising, and managing campaigns. The county is the first in Philadelphia's Pennsylvania suburbs with such restrictions.

Commissioners James R. Matthews and Joseph M. Hoeffel III, who were behind the ordinance, called it "a major step forward" despite warnings that they were overreaching in making rules for county offices run by other elected officials.

"They all get the same paycheck, and they're all employees of the county of Montgomery," Hoeffel said.

That contention elicited protests from several of the officials whose workers are covered by the policy.

District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman and sheriff's solicitor Thomas J. Speers said they were contemplating a legal challenge to the policy's application to their workers. Commissioner Bruce L. Castor Jr. called the policy a "power grab" to give his rival commissioners control of row offices.

"This is absolute power corrupting absolutely," said Castor, who voted against the ban.

Matthews, who cut fellow Republican Castor out of power by aligning with Hoeffel, a Democrat, shortly after the 2007 election, said Castor should "get a crying towel" instead of criticizing the policy.

The prohibition, which is to take effect after this fall's elections, redraws ethics rules that Hoeffel helped pass in 1998 - and that Matthews helped repeal in 2000 for being too strict.

That policy barred eight high-level officials under the commissioners from virtually any political involvement, from running for office to making partisan speeches.

Castor and Hoeffel said in March they would back reimplementing the stricter version and applying it to the scores of workers covered by the ban approved yesterday. But after Castor said he would would vote for the broader ban despite believing it "illegal and unconstitutional" because of its restriction on row-office employees, Hoeffel called Castor's support "disingenuous" and rejected it.

Hoeffel proposed the less strict version to win Matthews' support, which angered Castor.

"It allows all these people to be involved in politics up to their ears," Castor said.

He further accused Hoeffel of hypocrisy, Matthews of lying, and termed their plan "a corruption policy" aimed at blocking Republican prosecutors from running for office.

Hoeffel and Matthews responded that Castor had shown the need for the policy in givtestimony during the federal trial of former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, when Castor admitted doing political work with subordinates in his office while district attorney.

As the sniping continued, Matthews elicited a chuckle from Hoeffel when he criticized Castor for hanging his commissioner's certificate in his office bathroom.

"You have no respect for your office," Matthews told Castor.

"I have respect for the office of commissioner," Castor responded, "just not the people that I serve with."

After the policy passed, Ferman said she did not think its restrictions legally applied to her approximate 40 prosecutors.

"I view this as nothing more than some of the commissioners [making an] effort to interfere in the way that I run my office," she said.