A flawed ethics policy enacted by Montgomery County Commissioners Jim Matthews and Joe Hoeffel appears to violate the U.S. Constitution.

The new policy prohibits county employees from running for public office, effectively denying their rights as U.S. citizens to seek political office. There is also a question of whether the commissioners have any say in what elected row officers such as the district attorney can do.

The case will end up in court, costing Montgomery County taxpayers tens of thousands of tax dollars so Hoeffel and Matthews can flex their political muscles. The new policy is a blatant political ploy by Hoeffel and Matthews to prevent any current office-holders or other county workers from challenging the commissioners when their terms are up.

From an editorial in The Pottstown Mercury:

County employees were not permitted to work on political campaigns while on the county clock before the "new" policy was voted on. The addendum that they're now not allowed to seek public office while an employee of the county goes too far.

An employee of the county is not an elected official and therefore their time should not be infringed upon.

We often have to remind elected officials who get upset with us when we track them down after normal business hours that they are public servants. Obviously, that's not the case with someone who works in an office somewhere in the county courthouse.

We don't believe our county government has the right to tell those people what they can and cannot do when they go home for the evening, or when they're on their lunch break for that matter.

Read the full editorial at the newspaper's Web site.