SENATE FILE 449

BY  COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT

(SUCCESSOR TO SF 182)

A BILL FOR

An Act related to candidacy and service in elective public office of public employees.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

   Section 1.  Section 55.1, Code 2011, is amended by adding the following new subsection:
   NEW SUBSECTION.  5.  A city employee who is elected to a municipal, county, state, or federal office shall not be terminated for holding that office unless the employer can show, by clear and convincing evidence, that holding the office to which the employee was elected precludes the employee from performing the required duties of the employee’s job description.
   Sec. 2.  Section 55.4, Code 2011, is amended to read as follows:
   55.4  Leave of absence for public employee candidacy.
   1.  Any public employee who becomes a candidate for any elective public office shall, and only upon request of the employee and commencing any time within thirty days prior to a contested primary, special, or general election and continuing until after the day following that election, automatically be given a period of leave. If the employee is under chapter 8A, subchapter IV, the employee may choose to use accrued vacation leave, accrued compensatory leave or leave without pay to cover these periods. The appointing authority may authorize other employees to use accrued vacation leave or accrued compensatory leave instead of leave without pay to cover these periods. An employee who is a candidate for any elective public office shall not campaign while on duty as an employee.
   2.  This section does not apply to employees of the federal government or to a public employee whose position is financed by federal funds if the application of this section would be contrary to federal law or result in the loss of the federal funds.
EXPLANATION
   This bill prohibits a city from terminating a city employee because the employee holds a publicly elected office unless the employer can show, by clear and convincing evidence, that holding public office precludes the employee from performing the required duties of the employee’s job description.
   The bill also specifies that the current Code provision allowing a public employee who becomes a candidate for public office to be given a leave of absence from employment applies only if the employee requests the leave of absence.