Wichita Falls mayor pushes official censorship of elected officials?

Pratt,

Love your show and when you visit our city.

Found this effort by our mayor astounding. He wants to assign social media sites to City of Wichita Falls employees so he and City staff can monitor their activity. This all stems from new District 5 City Councilor Steve Jackson posting public documents on his Facebook page, specifically current and proposed city salaries for the City Manager and Directors, which the Mayor and City Manager did not want released because the City Manager is wanting a $6000 raise after receiving a $17,000 raise just five years ago. A raise not based on merit but on what other CM’s are making.

Thanks for all you do for the citizens of Texas!

Barry

See: City sanctioned social media accounts may be on the way for city employees.

Pratt responds:

Stephen Santellana, Wichita Falls mayor

The City of Wichita Falls has every right to make sure social media used to disseminate city information by employees comply with reasonable standards but Mayor Santellana and council members are not “employees,” as he claims. They are fiduciary representatives of the people and the idea of the city government implementing official censorship of public communication by elected officials deserves severe rebuke by all.

There are already laws which protect against the dissemination of confidential material under which a rogue official can be stopped or punished. What Mayor Santellana appears to be calling for is a form of prior restraint on free political speech by elected officials. It is the definition of official censorship.

That the Wichita Falls mayor’s personal inclination is to use the heavy hand of tyrannical government to stop the speech of others, as opposed to simply working to build trust with these officials, says much about him and not one bit of it is complimentary.