"Today, a century after enactment of many
of these laws, society's values and understanding of the
importance of water has changed considerably. The
challenge for the State," she wrote, "is to
integrate contemporary values with [these] antiquated
laws."
The assistant forest supervisor argues that,
because of its timing, her article did not really
constitute any kind of advocacy.
"This article ... you know, presumably
would have come out when the hearing was just about over,
and everything would have already been said, so it
wouldn't have been an advocacy role, per se," she
told Electric Nevada.
But in fact the water adjudication hearings in
Carson City had been suspended on January 8, over a week
before the two advertisements ran. Because of a death in
the family of one of the key attorneys, a hiatus in the
adjudication until mid-March had also been announced
January 8.
Because the federal Hatch Act
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proscribes federal
employees from certain political activities, Schwalbach
was asked if she knew how her activity, on what is a
political issue, would be categorized under that law. She
said she didn't know.
"The distinction I guess that we would
make," she said, "and I worked this out with
our office of general counsel and our public affairs
shop, you know, before just firing something off to a
newspaper -- was that this was intended to inform, not
try to play an advocacy role, but inform people of the
place where the agency is at."
In 1993, Congress amended the Hatch Act to
permit more political activity by most federal and D.C.
government employees than the law had previously allowed.
However, according to the federal Office of
Special Counsel, federal employees still may not
"engage in political activity while on duty, in a
government office, or [while] wearing an official
uniform."
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