Welcome to the Business Journal Archives
Search for articles below, or continue to the all new BusinessJournalDaily.com now.
Search
Oregon Mayor Says No-Talk Order Is Not a Gag Order
"By Buffy PollockPHOENIX, Ore. -- When the newly elected mayor of this small city, population 4,000, in southern Oregon announced plans last week to control the flow of information provided to local media, she was met by resistance from two area newspapers and even some council members who initially approved the policy. On Feb. 28, Mayor Vicki Bear notified two local newspapers, The Medford Mail Tribune and the Ashland Daily Tidings, that she would be the sole spokesperson on all issues pertaining to city business. Bear stated that four of six city council members had agreed to the directive at a January workshop. Furthermore, no city staff or department heads should be contacted for interview requests. While council members had every legal right, as elected officials, to comment on city business, the mayor said that they had voiced a desire for her to be spokesperson, handling all interview requests. "What we have going on here is not really a big thing," said Bear. "What the council and I have decided is we're simply going to focus the information the media receives. It is not a gag order, nor have we ever said that it is." Bear said the council simply felt that her being spokesperson was in the best interest of the city. "Any member of the media has every right to ask the council or myself questions, but the council will not comment because we are focusing the information we provide," Bear said. "The reason we are doing this is so we can focus the information going on, so we don't have 3,001 different things floating around out there." Bear's directive was reported by the trade journal Editor & Publisher, which reminded its readers that The Business Journal of Youngstown, Ohio, filed a First Amendment lawsuit against Mayor George M. McKelvey Feb. 24 for banning all city employees from speaking with any of the newspaper's reporters. Carlos DeBritto, president of the Phoenix, Ore., City Council said the council had in fact requested Bear to act as spokesperson on their behalf, but realized that the policy had caused some concern. "We certainly don't want to give the impression that people can't speak for themselves," he said, "though there have been issues that have been brought out [by the media] that could have hampered some negotiations." DeBritto was referring to negotiations between Oregon Department of Transportation officials and city officials over a proposed Home Depot store at an overloaded intersection near one entrance to Phoenix. Oregon Newspaper Publishers' Association executive director LeRoy Yorgason warned that such a decision to limit information to local media, whatever the issue, could cause concern among voters. "It's a responsibility of any person elected to an office to fulfill it to the best of their ability, and to have any restrictions put upon them decreases their ability to contribute anything worthwhile," Yorgason said. However, "this happens across the country a half-dozen times a year, seldom in Oregon, but the result generally is the people who feel something should be said find a way to say it and the person putting on the restriction soon discovers it is unproductive to try to do something like that." Elected in November -- along with Mayor Bear -- Council member Terry Helfrich admitted the new policy could use some fine tuning but said, "at this time I need to support the direction of the mayor and members." "I would support anything that would make the media and the citizens of Phoenix more comfortable," he added. Having filled the shoes of a mayor who remained in office for nearly a decade, Bear campaigned under a platform of open communication. "I think the more open communication you have, the more the citizens will support the programs the city is trying to develop," Bear said in an interview prior to being elected to office. "My whole campaign is based around open communication with the public," she added.Wednesday, less than two days following her initial memo restricting press interviews, Bear eased closer to that approach in announcing a new memo would be drafted by Council President DeBritto. Bear clarified that city staff and department heads would be permitted to grant interviews on matters included as part of public record but that she preferred to be considered an initial contact in order to direct local media reporters to the best possible source. Clarification or not, Councilor Steve Schulman said he planned, with the support of two other council members, to propose a resolution to rescind the no-talk directive at an upcoming meeting. He pointed out that approximately one month ago, the council and mayor discussed speaking "with one voice" on negotiations related only to negotiations for the Home Depot project, but that he was unaware the directive would apply to all city business. Bear challenged that assumption. "I believe it was made clear that it was for all consensual decisions by the council," said Bear. "If he's saying it's not a good idea, he should have said it then at the meeting." Editor's note: The author, Buffy Pollock, is a free-lance reporter who resides in Medford, Ore."