A federal office has concluded that former Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn violated the Hatch Act when he marched in a July 4th parade in Fairport … at the same time he was running for re-election. But the ruling by the federal Office of Special Counsel finds that O’Flynn didn’t intend any wrongdoing.
The OSC’s ruling comes more than a month after Republican O’Flynn was defeated by Democrat Todd Baxter. The ruling that O’Flynn improperly mixed official business and politics is in answer to a complaint filed by Monroe County’s Democratic Party Chair, Jamie Romeo.
According to the ruling, what put O’Flynn over the line was marching in a group that included uniformed deputies, police equipment and campaign volunteers. The OSC says this was unintentional, and there’s no evidence deputies were compelled to march in the parade.