Code Of Silence: Prairie Village Free Speech Crackdown Proposed?!?

Check valid concerns from our favorite suburb about the not-so-secret inner-workings of local government. 

Moreover . . . 

The effort at secrecy outside of obvious concerns regarding personnel or legal issues is quizzical. It's not like they're working on the Manhattan Project that still wouldn't bring back a decent biz plan for the old school Macy's/Jones building at the mall.

Take a peek . . .

The section raising First Amendment concerns for Council Member Lori Sharp concerned the Code’s definition of “Late Case Interest”:

“No member of the governing body shall, after the termination of service or expiration of their term as a member of the governing body with the city, appear before any board, commission, committee, or agency of the city in relation to any case, proceeding or application in which he or she personally participated during the period of his or her service or tenure, or which was under his or her active consideration.”

Sharp warned of the update’s chilling effect on Freedom of Speech:

“We’re limited people’s right to speak, we’re limited their free speech. We have people come and talk with us, we have social media. There are a lot of things we don’t like. But we should be so happy that we live here and are able to have that First Amendment right to be able to speak. So, I don’t think just because you served on the council or a committee, you should be limited or punished essentially because you’ve done that.”

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Prairie Village mayor won't substantiate constitutionality of proposed ethics code changes - The Sentinel

Mayor Eric Mikkelson won't explain why he believes restrictions on speech in the proposed ethics code revisions are constitutional.