City Policies Meant To Discourage Whistle-Blowing?

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Tuesday's Janesville Gazette contained a follow-up story involving one of the leading characters in JanesvilleGate.

JG Excerpt:
JANESVILLE — The city recreation director violated confidentiality policies when she gave a Janesville Gazette reporter recordings of conversations with her boss, an attorney hired by the city has found.

From the sound of previous newspaper reports on this, the recreation director did not report false or misleading information. Judging by the limited number of facts published at this point in time, Federal Whistle-Blower laws are probably the only thing protecting the director's employment rights.

Once they discovered she felt she could no longer trust the normal chain of command and procedures, her status should have changed from a potential policy lawbreaker to a potential victim in a millisecond. In that event, city whistle-blower protection laws should have taken precedence over their confidentiality policies. Except for one important detail. The city doesn't have a whistle-blower protection policy!

JG Excerpt:.....investigation showed that recreation director Bonnie Davis admitted giving oral, written and digitally recorded confidential personnel information to a Gazette reporter.

That is textbook whistle-blower activity. Once the trust is broken, WB's usually turn to an outside third-party.

JG Excerpt:
Eric Levitt, Janesville's new city manager, said he has talked to Davis and considers the issue closed.

Any hint of wrongdoing involving Davis should be closed, but it's very disappointing to hear the new city manager seems content with the results of this case and sees no further "issues." Particularly with the latest press release which continued to paint Davis as a violator of city policy. This allows the city to hold inconsequential powers over her and smacks of scapegoating.

Without a commonsense policy written to protect whistle-blowers, the city administration can never be honest with itself. And if that’s the case, why should anyone trust them.

An internal Whistleblower Protection Policy should:

* prohibit city officials from exercising laws that interfere with the right of an employee to blow the whistle;

* prohibit city officials from retaliating against an employee for having made a protected disclosure or for having refused an illegal order as defined in the policy;

* provide a procedure for continued and safe employment during and after a whistle blowing event.

If a tree falls in forest and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?

You can read more about whistle-blower laws here.