Rochester’s political parties have entered a debate over the arrest of Meghan Feasel, the wife of Monroe County communications director Justin Feasel who was arrested for drunk driving while using a county-owned vehicle, which has been assigned to her husband.

Republican County Executive Maggie Brooks and her administration are now under fire from Democrats due to what they deem a double standard. Justin Feasel was suspended without pay for seven days, and had his permission to drive the county vehicle revoked for 30 days. However, this punishment comes the same month of a termination of a Democratic employee for what was cited as an error on his timesheet. Both the county executive and the human resources director have shot down the claims of bad politics, however.

Justin Feasel and a male coworker were passengers in the vehicle Meghan Feasel was operating. They were pulled over on their way home from a wedding for failure to yield for a pedestrian. She will be charged with a misdemeanor for DUI, a charge all too common across the nation recently. In fact, 1.4 million people are arrested for their first offense each year. But the problem between the parties has persisted for a couple of reasons.

The first issue is the double standard of which the Democrats are accusing Brooks. The county fired Mike Bovay, a county social worker and Democratic candidate for County Legislature, over a timesheet error.

According to Bovay, he took his hour lunch break earlier than usual- at 10 a.m. rather than 1 p.m.- in order to go to a rally at the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority headquarters to support drivers facing potential layoffs. He had filled out his timesheet earlier and written in the wrong lunch hour. Though he took responsibility for the mistake, he believes that his termination had political motive.

“I was fired for taking an early lunch. A senior aide to the county executive allowed his wife to put other citizens in harm’s way in a county vehicle, driving drunk,” Bovay said. “He received a slap on the wrist.”

The county responded quickly after Bovay made the issue public knowledge. Human Resources Director Brayton Connard responded to the claims via email, writing that while Bovay was terminated for the time card error, he also was responsible for leaving the work site without permission, failing to notify his supervisor of where he was, failing to follow office procedures, falsifying a sign-in and sign-out sheet, and theft of county time.

“The fact that Mr. Bovay apparently considers falsifying his time card to be a minor offense reinforces the wisdom of his termination,” Connard wrote.

Bovay still believes that since he went to the rally outside of company time, there are issues with the policy. He noted that any policy that would lead to his termination while more lightly treating behavior that could have put people in danger needs to be addressed.

The other issue, raised by Sandra Frankel, Democratic candidate for county executive, was the use of a county vehicle in the first place. She believes that county employees should not be allowed to take home or use a county vehicle outside of work hours and county duties. She referred to a 2004 report which recommended that use of county vehicles be eliminated, the only exception being those who are responding to emergencies. Connard fired back, saying that department heads have permission to use the vehicles for their work requirements and it is a part of their employment conditions.