Llewellyn gets muzzle for blocking free speech
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The award comes following an August, 2002 Southern Standard sports opinion column written by Dale Stubblefield that criticized the quality of food at ball parks.
Stubblefield never mentioned local concessions and later said the Civic Center’s food was the farthest thing from his mind when he wrote it, but two city employees responded with letters to the editor defending the Civic Center’s concession stands.
Llewellyn subsequently issued a memorandum attached to city employees’ paychecks that directed them not to write letters to the editor or make calls to radio stations without his approval. He noted it was the mayor’s duty to act as the city’s spokesman and that commenting on how the city provides services is the mayor’s job alone.
He stood by that memo when contacted about the award and said after he was nominated by an unknown source, he was not given a chance to respond before it was decided he was a winner.
“To this date, they don’t understand what we have done or what was done in this memo, and it’s unfortunate,” Llewellyn said, adding he will probably send the award back.
Llewellyn said he was actually protecting Stubblefield’s right to have an opinion after employees took issue with his column.
“I think I ought to get an award for protecting Mr. Stubblefield’s right to criticize city services,” he added, noting the column should have also caused the city to reflect upon the delivery of services.
In announcing Llewellyn’s muzzle, the center explained why preventing employees from writing letters to the editor afforded Llewellyn the award.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has held that restrictions on public employee speech on matters of ‘public concern,’ as opposed to speech involving only private matters, are rarely constitutional,” the statement notes.
“Mr. Llewellyn’s policy makes no such distinction. Even if a court were to hold that the two letters to the editor which precipitated Mr. Llewellyn’s policy did not involve a matter of ‘public concern,’ (a position that, as a legal matter, is highly doubtful), such a finding would not justify the blanket gag that restricts the speech of McMinnville city employees regardless of the topic on which they wish to publicly comment,” the statement said.
Llewellyn asserted the memo related to a “city policy,” not his policy. And Mayor Royce Davenport has said on several occasions he is the official spokesperson for the city.
Davenport said it is common practice for employees to be forbidden to speak for a governmental entity, an organization or a business.
“The policy is the mayor is the official spokesperson for the city, not that our employees cannot write letters expressing personal opinions,” he said. “Where you cross the line is when you say the city is going to do this or that.”
The center, located in Charlottesville, Va., and affiliated with the University of Virginia, has been giving the awards for 12 years. It has on its Board of Trustees people associated with Scripps Howard Foundation, New York University School of Law, Universal Press Syndicate and Newsweek, among others.
According to its Web site, the center’s director, Robert O’Neil, was a university president and free speech professor and holds three degrees from Harvard. He has also served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. and has testified before Congress.