When The Mayor Page Becomes The Campaign Page

There is a line every public official should understand, and it is not a complicated one. Public service belongs on one side. Campaigning belongs on the other. Mayor Sabrina Hazen appears to have crossed that line when she used a Facebook page titled Mayor Sabrina Hazen, a page that lists the City of Falmouth building as its address and the official mayor email as its contact, to ask residents to support electing her back as mayor.

This is not a private page being unfairly dragged into a public argument. This is a page presented to the public with the mayor’s title, the city building as the address, and the official mayor email address as the contact. It has been used by Hazen to communicate with the public as mayor, and the official City of Falmouth page has regularly shared content from it as part of city communication. That makes the public nature of the page impossible to ignore.

That matters because Kentucky does not treat campaign activity as some meaningless side issue. Kentucky has an entire campaign finance system under KRS Chapter 121, and the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance exists to administer those laws, review campaign finance activity, investigate complaints, and enforce compliance. Kentucky law also requires cities to have ethics codes that apply to elected officials and set standards of conduct for local government officials. In plain English, the office of mayor is not supposed to become a campaign tool.

On May 24, Mayor Hazen published a long post explaining what a mayor in a small town actually does. The post discussed city operations, city utilities, employees, ordinances, policies, budgets, financial oversight, contracts, strategic planning, resident concerns, emergency management, grant applications, infrastructure projects, public works, state and federal agencies, open meetings law, open records law, municipal finance laws, and the many Kentucky laws and regulations that govern city operations. It was not written like a private campaign announcement. It was written like an official explanation of the mayor’s job and the city’s operations.

Then, after using the authority of the current office, the weight of city responsibilities, the claimed accomplishments of the administration, and the public communication channel tied to the city building and official mayor email, the post ended by asking residents for support in electing her back as mayor so the work could continue over the next four years.

That is campaign activity. There is no way around it. Asking people to support electing you back to office is not neutral public information. It is not city business. It is not a routine update from the mayor’s office. It is an election message.

The problem is not that Sabrina Hazen is running for mayor. She has every right to run. The problem is that she used a public facing mayoral communication channel, carrying official city contact information and regularly shared by the official City of Falmouth page, to make a reelection appeal.

Public office belongs to the people. A campaign belongs to the candidate. Those two things are not supposed to be blended together because it benefits the person currently holding power. When a mayor uses the mayoral title, the city address, the official mayor email, city business, city accomplishments, and a city amplified communication channel to ask for reelection support, the concern is not imaginary. It is sitting directly in front of the public.

Mayor Hazen could have handled this cleanly. She could have created a separate campaign page. She could have used a personal profile. She could have told residents that campaign related updates would be posted somewhere other than the page used for mayoral communication. Instead, she used a page publicly tied to the office of mayor to explain the work of the office, present the accomplishments of the office, and then ask voters to give her the office again.

That is the issue.

This is exactly the kind of conduct ethics rules and campaign finance laws are meant to prevent. Official titles, government contact information, public office identifiers, and public facing communication channels are not supposed to be converted into campaign assets. The mayor’s title should not be campaign branding. The city building should not be campaign identification. The official mayor email should not sit on a page being used to ask for votes.

The legal and ethical issues are obvious. First, this raises a campaign finance issue because the post is a communication asking for election support. Second, it raises a public office issue because the page carries the city address, the official mayor email, and has been treated as a city communication outlet. Third, it raises an ethics issue because Kentucky cities are required to have ethics standards for elected officials, and using the appearance and authority of public office for campaign benefit is exactly the type of conduct residents should expect those standards to address. Fourth, it raises a public records and public access issue because a page used to communicate official city business may not be something the city can simply pretend is private whenever it becomes inconvenient.

The city does not need to play detective to see the problem. The problem is sitting in plain view. The page is titled Mayor Sabrina Hazen. It lists the City of Falmouth building as its address. It lists the official mayor email address. It is used to communicate with residents as mayor. The official City of Falmouth page regularly shares content from it. Then that same page was used to ask voters to elect her back as mayor.

That is not a gray area. That is not complicated. That is not a misunderstanding. That is the mayor using a page publicly dressed in the authority of the office to make a campaign appeal.

The public does not owe Mayor Hazen the courtesy of pretending this is a private campaign page when every public facing marker says otherwise. She does not get to claim the office when she wants credibility, claim the city address when she wants legitimacy, claim the official mayor email when she wants authority, claim the city page when she wants reach, and then claim privacy when she wants votes.

That is not public service. That is incumbency abuse wearing a name tag. The line should be clear. Mayor Hazen made it muddy.

Public office is not campaign property. The mayor’s title is not a campaign logo. The city building is not a campaign address. The official mayor email is not a campaign contact tool. A page used to communicate with the public as mayor should not become a reelection platform the moment campaign season begins.

If Mayor Hazen wants to campaign, she should campaign as a candidate. But she should not use a page publicly presented and used as a mayoral communication channel to ask voters for reelection.

The people of Falmouth deserve that line to be respected. And when a sitting mayor cannot respect that line on something this basic, residents have every right to ask what other lines have been crossed behind the scenes.

I realize often I am the outlier. I see bullshit, or sense it, and call it out real fast. Maybe some of you are right. Things are the way they are, the way they have been, and there is nothing wrong with that. I prefer to keep my eyes open to consistent business as usual. Good ole boys and political tradition are not the way things should stay, they are what is holding Falmouth back.

Whisper One Out