Signing petitions OK for civil servants in certain situations

The large majority of Cayman Islands government workers would not be prevented from signing political petitions addressed to the governor, cabinet members or other public officials under new guidelines released Tuesday by the deputy governor’s office.

The new policy clears the way for government workers to sign the recently-launched ‘one man, one vote’ petition, which seeks to alter constitutional requirements for Cayman Islands voting districts by the May 2013 elections.

“The preferred policy would be that public servants should enjoy the same freedom of expression, including the freedom to sign petitions, as persons outside the public service,” Deputy Governor Franz Manderson wrote in an administrative circular distributed Tuesday afternoon.

However, the policy is nowhere near as simplistic as allowing all government workers carte blanche to sign petitions. Rather, the 13-page document is specific about what type of petitions civil servants are allowed to sign and in what situations senior ranking civil servants cannot sign such documents. The policy requires civil servants maintain established codes of conduct and values, keeping the day-to-day work activities separate from political opinions or leanings.

The policy breaks petitions into two classes.

Class 1 petitions are those addressed to any public official seeking to change or amend any action or proposed action by a government ministry or portfolio. These can include any matters for which a minister or senior civil servant within a portfolio has direct responsibility.

Class 2 petitions are efforts by the public to generate a voter-initiated referendum, which must be addressed to Cabinet members. Class 2 petitions are also any petitions sent to the governor concerning matters directly within his constitutional responsibility.

The policy only applies to petitions presented to the governor, Cabinet or other public official. Petitions involving social, civic, community or professional matters are not covered.

Public servants are generally allowed to sign both class 1 and class 2 petitions, with certain caveats.

For instance, a public servant who holds what is considered a “key position” or a sensitive position to the public official being petitioned is not allowed to sign a class 1 petition. Key positions include chief officers, deputy chief officers, policy advisers, agency heads or deputy heads, clerk of the Legislative Assembly or clerk of the Cabinet.

Sensitive positions are defined as those who provide legal or financial advice, public communications, or physical development services to a ministry or portfolio. Class 2 petitions can be signed as long as senior civil servants doing the signing meet “notification” requirements addressed in the policy. “Notification” requirements are also included in guidelines for signing class 1 petitions.

“Relevant to the signing of a class 1 petition, any public servant who holds a key position, but does not have direct responsibility for the subject matter of the petition must, at least 48 hours prior to doing so, inform the public officials whom his or her position supports, through his chief officer, of his intention to sign a class 1 petition,” the policy states. “Relevant to the signing of a class 2 petition, any public servant who holds a key position must, at least 48 hours prior to doing so, inform the public official whom his or her position supports, through his chief officer, of his or her intention to sign a class 2 petition.”

Signing petitions when that is not allowed, or failing to notify a public official of intent to sign a petition can result in disciplinary action for that civil servant. Any claim of retaliatory action against any civil servant for signing a petition will be brought before the deputy governor, the policy states.