MORALE DAMAGE FOLLOWS A VAGUE, OMINOUS LETTER

Municipal workers in Scott City received a letter recently from their employers. It warned them not to "undermine" city officials or policies. Employees are properly concerned that their rights are being impeded. City council members, who signed the letter, are right to be concerned that leaks of confidential or legally protected municipal documents might be occurring. Both sides should agree that the letter broke the first rule of written communication, which is to express thoughts in unambiguous words. Both should now realize that slips in such delicate areas don't result in better government.

Employment by public en~ti~ties often carries with it certain requirements: municipal work~ers often must live within the city limits, city employees usually can't run for municipal elected office, and so on. One right the employees don't waive, though discretion might dictate it in many cases, is that of saying what you think. Constitutional guarantees cover freedom of speech, and a mun~i~cipality would be hard-pressed to abridge that.

This is not to say city council members might not be justly alarmed about some specific issue. While we are not big fans of public documents being hidden away, Missouri laws provide for the closure of some governmental records. If some of those records in Scott City are being disclosed by city employees to achieve a political aim (there are only vague hints anything like this has happened), council members have a duty to investigate and put a stop to the activity.

The point is that the incident that might have precipitated this letter is not widely known, and the letter does little to enlighten any of its recipients or the taxpaying public. The activity of "undermining" remains obscure and ominous in the letter; no persons, neither senders nor receivers of this letter, know where they stand as a result of it. If any such problem exists in Scott City, this letter might resolve it ... but not without doing some morale damage along the way.