City workers can't write letters to newspapers, call stations without OK

By The Associated Press,
freedomforum.org staff

09.07.02

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McMINNVILLE, Tenn. — The city administrator has told public employees they can't write a letter to the editor or call radio stations without his permission.

City Administrator Herb Llewellyn informed workers of the policy in an Aug. 27 memo. The memo, which was obtained by The Southern Standard newspaper, was written after two McMinnville employees wrote letters responding to a sports column that criticized food at the city ball fields.

"There are two rules in life that you all should know and follow: do not pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel and today's newspaper can be found tomorrow in the trash can," the memo says.

"That said, employees will not respond to media stories or editorials. You will not write letters to the editor or telephone radio stations without my approval."

Llewellyn said it was the mayor's role to be spokesman for the city and employees who violated the new policy would face disciplinary action.

He said he didn't think the policy infringed on employees' free-speech rights.

The U.S. States Supreme Court has ruled that public employees do not forfeit their free-speech rights when they take public employment.

In 1968 the Court determined in Pickering v. Board of Education that public school administrators violated the First Amendment rights of a public school teacher when they terminated him for writing a letter to the editor to the local newspaper.

"The problem in any case is to arrive at a balance between the interests of the teacher, as a citizen, in commenting upon matters of public concern and the interest of the States, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees," the Court wrote.

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