Thanks for your recent articles about wage rates for certain town of Amherst’s part-time employees. As I understand it, unlike those at the bottom and top of the wage scale, this group earns less per hour now, with an across-the-board 2 percent raise effective Jan. 1, than if they had received their usual step increases.
Most of these employees work at Jones Library. At the Personnel Board meeting on March 20, Chair Tony Butterfield promised a satisfactory resolution.
The most recent article quoted town officials who appear to disagree with these numbers. The article had no quotations from affected employees themselves. The reason might intrigue Bulletin readers.
Amherst’s Personnel Procedures Manual forbids town employees to speak with the media about town matters without a supervisor’s OK. It also provides: “Employees may not initiate contact in writing or orally with the media without authorization from their supervisor.”
Requiring a supervisor’s authorization in every case to “initiate contact …with the media,” and to respond to inquiries from the media, appears to verge on the infringement of constitutionally protected speech.
The town has a legitimate interest in ensuring that employees who speak for the town are authorized to do so. Speaking about town matters is different. As a member of the D.C. Bar, I encourage town officials to craft a provision concerning contact with the media that ensures town employees’ rights of free speech.
Sarah McKee
Amherst