EDITORIAL: Henderson’s hushing

Speaking of limiting public access to public business, the city of Henderson has taken its irresponsibly insular culture to new lows by threatening employees with termination for talking to journalists.

The city wants all media inquiries to run through its communications staff. But the new policy, the only one of its kind among Southern Nevada governments, clearly is intended to discourage employees from blowing the whistle on a government that has embarrassed itself plenty of times over the years.

“It’s not just a threat to employees,” Nevada Press Association Executive Director Barry Smith told the Review-Journal’s Eric Hartley, “it’s really a threat to the media as well: ‘Hey, don’t talk to our employees, because if their name shows up in your story, we’re going to take it out on them.”

The policy will discourage city workers from talking to residents out of fear they might be media, or might relay a remark or anecdote to the media. Do city residents want such treatment from the government they fund?

This is more wagon-circling from a government that suffers from institutional distrust of anyone who doesn’t cash a city paycheck. City Manager Jacob Snow should ditch the policy. If he doesn’t, the City Council should order him to.