Council seeks control of iPads, urges mayor to act on whistleblower ordinance

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2017, 11:43 p.m. — The whistleblower ordinance approved by the Bardstown City Council at its Jan. 24 meeting has not yet become law, and at its working session Tuesday the council wanted to know why.

The whistleblower ordinance was one of three ordinances approved that same night by unanimous vote. But only two of three were published in the newspaper the following Friday.

Councilman John Kelley discusses the whistleblower ordinance that remains unpublished following its approval at the Jan. 24, 2017 council meeting.

“Historically ordinances are approved on a Tuesday and published on Friday,” Councilman Roland Williams told Mayor John Royalty. “My question is this — have you signed the whistleblower ordinance?”

Royalty said yes, he had. But when asked when it would be published — so it can become law — the mayor was silent.

City Clerk Barbie Bryant told Williams she had been directed to make sure the ordinance was published by Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017.

“We can’t publish it this week?” Williams asked.

“It will be published before the end of February,” Royalty responded.

The mayor’s response caught members of the council off-guard. Councilman John Kelley asked Royalty why he was delaying publication of the ordinance.

Royalty did not answer the question beyond offering assurances the ordinance would be published within the 30 day time limit provided by state statute.

“It could be printed tomorrow or next week,” Royalty said. “It will be printed.”

But Kelley wasn’t satisfied.

“Somebody knows in this room — between you and [City Clerk Barbie Bryant] — when it will be published,” Kelley said. “When is it going to be sent to the Standard to be published?”

Councilman Joe Buckman speaks with City Clerk Barbie Bryant prior to the start of Tuesday’s working session.

Bryant said the mayor had not directed her to submit the ordinance for publication.

Royalty blamed a busy schedule as reason the ordinance hasn’t been published.

“It will be sent,” he assured the council. “Its the mayor’s prerogative, as long as it is printed before 30 days is up.”

Kelley asked Royalty to instruct Bryant to send the ordinance to the newspaper for publication. Royalty declined, but said he “would probably do that later this week.”

Before the meeting ended, Councilman Roland Williams joined Kelley in asking for publication of the whistleblower ordinance.

“There’s no reason why you can’t go ahead and give her that direction,” Williams said. “We voted 6-0, we need to go ahead and get it done.”

The mayor did not respond.

MUNICIPAL ORDER. A municipal order drafted by Councilman John Kelley that allows the council to directly contact city’s department heads on city-related matters and gives the council control of their city-provided iPads received unanimous approval Tuesday night.

Part of the municipal order addressed a recommendation by City Attorney Tim Butler to loosen the mayor’s “gag order” that required council members to submit questions for city department heads to his office.

The new order gives the council the right to directly contact city department heads and the the right to access the information it needs to govern the city effectively.

The second part of the municipal order gives the council the right to independent control of the their Apple iPads, including password management, email access, and adding programs for official council member use — control that the council members do not have now, Kelley explained.

“Right now [the iPads] are connected to the iCloud and I don’t have any control over things that are uploaded,” he said. “I don’t know what’s been uploaded and we don’t have the same access as the executive department.”

The municipal order also gives the council the right to temporarily refuse to allow city IT personnel to access to their iPads for software updates, etc.

Royalty cited past abuses of the iPads as the reason for tightening control over the devices. One council iPad went to Europe with a council member, he said.

“We don’t use dating services on our iPads. We don’t run our businesses off of it and we don’t run our campaign off of it like was done,” he said. The iPads are not for the council members’ private use, he explained.

Kelley said his municipal order doesn’t suggest the iPads are to be used for personal use, and he supports using the devices according to established guidelines.

Security is an issue for the council, he explained. Councilwoman Kecia Copeland’s private emails were examined on her iPad last year as part of an open records request by Assistant Bardstown Police Chief McKenzie Mattingly. Mattingly asked the council to investigate her personal use of her iPad. As part of that investigation, the contents of some of Copeland’s private emails were disclosed.

Kelley said the council should have control of the tracking capabilities of the iPads, stating it wasn’t appropriate for the executive branch being able to track the location of the members of the council.

After the meeting, Royalty explained the tracking feature was to help locate a lost or stolen device, and not to track the location of council members. He said the council’s municipal order put the city at risk of a substantial security breach.

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