CNBNews

Censorship of the Public's Right to Speak is Hurting the Community of Gloucester City

"Our attorneys have advised us that we cannot prevent you from making remarks about our employees. They have requested that we advise you that our employees are not public officials and you are not immune to civil actions they may bring as a result of your remarks." Mayor Dayl Baile

Mayor Baile's caution to residents before the public session of the Gloucester City Council meeting or other public meetings, regarding possible legal action for complaints about a city employee, may have inadvertently discouraged community members from speaking up. This warning, unprecedented in our many years of reporting on council meetings, raises concerns about potential limitations on freedom of speech. It's important for residents to consider the impact of such mandates on their ability to voice concerns. Additionally, recent attempts to silence the local media by filing false charges against the editor of CNBNews are troubling and warrant further discussion.

 

It's crucial to understand that the suppression of free speech by Gloucester City's leaders is not a recent development. Council members are under strict instructions to withhold their opinions until they have been vetted by the city administrator or city solicitor. This results in a council that merely nods and says ‘Yes' to any motion, effectively silencing their voices and depriving the community of their valuable input.

 

In February 2022, newly elected councilman Derek Timm, a regular contributor to CNBNews Cheers and Jeers column before becoming a councilman, sent a

Derek Timm

statement for publication pertaining to his first month in office for us to publish.  No sooner had it been posted than he was told by the acting City Administrator that he couldn’t make any public statements without getting approval from him.  It was also published on Timm's Facebook page. 

 

Timm requested CNBNews to remove it. He said the acting city administrator, Police Chief Brian Morrell, told him he wasn’t allowed to share his experiences with the public. He had to unpublish his remarks from his Facebook page, and he was told to tell the CNBNews Editor that he wasn’t allowed to publish it either. Morrell supposedly told Timm that he was overstepping his bounds and that the information he released could only come from his office. We wonder who told the City Police Chief that a councilman couldn’t make a public statement about his first month in office. There were no secrets in his remarks, he simply explained his experiences on the governing body.  

 

Prior to becoming a councilman, Timm was a regular contributor to the CNBNews Cheers and Jeers column. Many of his comments were critical of the City council and were submitted anonymously. We had expected more from the new councilman based on his previous cheers and jeers comments. Instead of telling the acting administrator that he works for the city council, Timm buckled under and gave in to Morrell's command. Like so many before him who assumed the title of councilmember, Derek became the person he blasted in past CNBNews Cheers and Jeers columns. It didn't take long for him to become another “Yes” person on that governing body. 

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