The federal Merit System Protection Board has ordered Ogden to remove Jon Greiner as police chief for violating the Hatch Act or possibly face the loss of federal funds.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Matthew Godfrey confirmed the city had received the ruling Tuesday but said Greiner still has his job for now. The mayor has not had time to review the ruling, the spokeswoman said.

Greiner could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.

In 2006, while he was police chief, Greiner was elected to the Utah Senate. He was running for re-election in 2010 when Democrats complained he was violating the Hatch Act, which bars government employees who oversee federal funds or are paid with them from seeking or holding partisan elected offices.

In March 2010, an administrative law judge ruled that Greiner had violated the Hatch Act, and he dropped his bid for re-election. In April, he appealed the administrative law judge's ruling to the Merit System Protection Board.

At that time he released a statement, saying the Hatch Act was flawed.

"Our founding fathers would probably roll over in their graves at the notion that a part-time state or local citizen legislator would be denied his or her First Amendment rights," the statement said, "and all voters would be denied their rights by a 70-year-old act of Congress that was originally passed to curb the currying of partisan political favor for federal employees."

According to the Merit System Protection Board's ruling issued Tuesday, "it appears undisputed that, as Ogden Police Department chief of police, [Greiner] performed grant-related duties as a normal and foreseeable incident to his employment."

In his appeal, Greiner had argued that his duties regarding grant funding were minimal and that most of them were performed before he ran for the state Senate.

But the board ruled that the grants "have significance beyond the dates that they were created because they establish a substantial relationship between [Greiner] and the U.S. Department of Justice that continued throughout the period of [Greiner's] candidacy."

The board noted that Greiner "is an outstanding employee ... in his long career with the Ogden Police Department" and that he "rendered that service both faithfully and well."

But the board said the police chief was aware of the Hatch Act before becoming a state senator and must be removed as police chief. "He knowingly ran the risk of prosecution for his actions and we find it appropriate to hold him accountable for the consequences of his decision."

If Ogden fails to remove Greiner, or if Ogden hires him within 18 months of his termination, the board said it may order the federal agency administering grants or loans to Ogden Police Department to withhold funds.

csmart@sltrib.com