Chief/Senator Greiner's Hatch Act Hearing is Postponed

With luck, we'll see a final resolution of this matter, sometime prior to the expiration of Greiner's first Senate term of office

Last Thurday, gentle reader blackrulon posed this compound question in one of our lower comments sections: "... [W]hat is the status of police chief Greiner and the conflict in having both a state senator position and the chief of police job? When can we expect a ruling?"

We don't know whether Mr. Schwebke has been reading the blog for good reportorial ideas, but he's nevertheless johnny on the spot with a Greiner Hatch Act dispute update this morning, in which he reports that Chief Greiner's federal Merit System Protection Board Hatch Act violation hearing, originally set for this month, has been continued to October 20, 2009:

• Ogden PD Chief hearing postponed / Jon Greiner could go before an administrative law judge in October

Reading between the lines, it's apparent that the federal Office of Special Council will be filing a motion for summary judgment sometime in advance of the newly set October evidentiary hearing, to test whether Chief Greiner's quite innovative "Perkins defense", (which would theoretically insulate Chief Greiner from federal Hatch Act jurisdiction as a matter of law, by vesting sole federal grant funds approval and administration authority in Ogden CAO John Patterson and Assistant Chief Wayne Tarwater respectively) ... holds water.

With luck, we'll see a final answer to blackrulon's latter above question, sometime prior to the expiration of Greiner's first Senate term of office (January 2011).

Comments, anyone?

Update 6/22/09 11:07 a.m. MT: KSL News is covering this story too:

• Hearing on Ogden police chief's candidacy delayed

Don't neglect to check out the many"interesting" KSL reader comments.