As you may know, Councilman Curtis Jones Jr.'s annual "white linen" birthday party and fundraiser is scheduled for Friday night. PhillyClout yesterday received an invitation to the party from a Jones Council staffer who serves as his communication director. The invite was sent from her city email address and featured the city seal.
We had two questions about the message:
Should this staffer be sending out a political message from her city address, presumably on city time?
While Council staffers are allowed to do political work, unlike other city workers, they are banned from fundraising activities under the City Charter. Does sending out an email to an event which solicits funds for the Councilman's campaign account qualify as fundraising?
Shane Creamer, the executive director of the city Board of Ethics, declined to comment on the situation. We called Jones for comment and received an email which said the situation was an oversight and has been corrected. The email did not clarify what exactly had been done to correct things.