COURIER INVESTIGATES BRADY HOUSE ETHICS QUESTION

Congressman Kevin Brady (R) Texas 8th district

Courier Editor Confirms Investigation

Adrian Heath | February 10,2010

County Citizen received  a tip more than four weeks ago from a source familiar with the subject that  Montgomery County’s sole daily newspaper was investigating some form of ethics issue related to the staff of Congressman Kevin Brady.

We can now report that The Courier is investigating questions around the proper use and record keeping of House employees for campaign purposes with the following comments supplied by Courier Editor Jim Fredericks via email today.

The Courier is looking into questions raised by GOP congressional candidate Melecio Franco as to whether U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady’s office staff may be inappropriately blurring the lines between their staff work and their support for Rep. Brady’s campaign. The Courier anticipates publishing a story on the issue soon.

Upon receipt of that information we placed a call to Tracee Evans, Press Secretary for Congressman Brady who denied knowledge of such an investigation and declined  comment with the promise to call back later with relevant information.

Researching the question of  campaign work performed by House employees raised  by The Courier led us to the web site of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct @ http://ethics.house.gov/ which advises -”Employees who do campaign work while remaining on the House payroll should keep careful records of the time they spend on official activities and, separately, on campaign activities, and demonstrate that campaign work was not done on official time.  There is no set format for maintaining such time records.”

Melecio Franco, candidate for U.S. Congress, would like for Congressman Kevin Brady to answer questions about his federal government staff attending campaign events during normal business hours. Franco claims he first raised these concerns with the Conroe Courier on Jan. 6.

“I saw Congressman Kevin Brady’s District Director, Mrs. Sara Stephens, at the North Shore Republican Women’s Club luncheon on Jan. 6 at the Bentwater Country Club,” said Franco. “This was a purely partisan, campaign event that was a Republican candidate forum. Mr. Brady’s office needs to let the public know why his government employees are attending political campaign events during normal business hours.”

Franco noted that the event at the Bentwater Country Club was located approximately 20 minutes away from Brady’s federal government office in Conroe. The luncheon was from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then another 20-minute drive back to the office. He points out that the entire duration of the event with travel time was approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes out of a work day to attend a campaign event. A typical work day for a federal government staffer is 8 hours, according to Franco who is a former staffer and speechwriter for Congressman Ted Poe of Humble.

“So the question is: was Mrs. Stephens on vacation that day; was she on approved part-time status according to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct or are Brady’s staffers illegally attending campaign events on federal government time wasting tax payer dollars?”

Brady also conducted a breakfast at the Republican Party Headquarters in Liberty, Texas on Jan. 8 at 8 a.m. According to Franco, Brady brought another staffer to that event, Brandon Reese.

“While Brady may think that it is ok to host a breakfast and bring federal government employees to discuss legislative issues during a primary election at the Republican Party Headquarters in Liberty, I wonder how many times Brady has hosted a breakfast during the primaries at the Liberty County Democratic Party Headquarters,” asked Franco.

The Courier cites “questions raised” by Melecio Franco. While details of the exact investigation are not revealed the requirement for “careful records” for time on and off official activities seems to fit the description.  Perhaps the following explanation for the need for such rules taken from the House Ethics site  point to the type of conduct question in Congressman Brady’s case.

The rules governing campaign work by House employees were implicated in a Standards Committee disciplinary case that was completed in the 106^th Congress. In that case the Committee determined that a Member had violated the House Code of Official Conduct in that his staff members worked for his campaign during regular office hours without taking annual leave or going on Leave Without Pay status, or taking any other steps to ensure that those services were rendered during time that was properly deemed the employee’s “own time.”The employees in that office took “administrative leave” whenever they performed campaign work.  However, they were paid their full congressional salary while on “administrative leave,” and the office had no system in place to ensure that time spent in that status was recorded and was either made up at alternate times or charged as vacation time.

Franco’s claims seem fairly easy  to dismiss. All that is required is for Congressman Brady’s office to produce the records required by House rules. County Citizen has requested those records via voice and email request to Tracee Evans.

Brady who is seeking his eighth term in congress faces  two other Republican opponents in addition to Franco, Tyler Russell and Scott Baker. Should he survive  their primary challenge, Brady then must face Libertarian Party candidate Bruce West.

Willis based candidate Scott Baker  said “The rules are very clear and every candidate should be aware of them, and   “I’d rather not jump to conclusions and wait for the facts” when asked for comment.

Regarding the allegations made by Franco , Candidate Tyler Russell of The Woodlands responded that “the people of Texas 8th congressional district have a right to know that their tax dollars are not being used to send the incumbent back to office time and again.”

Libertarian Party  Candidate Bruce West had the following to say,

“I would not be surprised if there were an overlap between campaign and staff.   While researching his (Kevin Brady’s) campaign expenditures,  I saw Mr. Brady spent $305 for “Staff Assistance” at the Animal Clinic @ Indian Springs.  It was not clear from the information I saw whether the staff that needed assistance was his congressional staff or campaign staff; if they were on the clock or not.”

We have more questions for the Brady camp and sought to pose them to Tracee Evans at close of business today, however the Press Secretary failed to respond to calls or email by press time.