By: Diane Benjamin

h/t readers!

The Town of Normal thinks it can silence free speech. Of course we knew that, they certainly don’t want to hear from citizens at Council meetings – unless you are going to take their side. Even if you take their side they might make you sit through hours of jibber before you are authorized to speak.

This story is about employees who leave employment with Normal. Most, if not all, sign a Separation Agreement. Some employees have parts added to their agreements, this one is for the police officer that was recently fired, her last name is Street:

So, if Street knows about problems in the Normal Police Department, like “long guns” not available, or the department is seriously under-funded, of Pam Reece uses them as her personal enforcers, or whatever – Normal thinks they can silence her when she is no longer employed.

Hint: Normal isn’t going to sue for a number of reasons. Court records could reveal more than Normal wants revealed. If they want to scare ex-employees into silence with a piece of paper, they sure don’t want an attorney asking questions. They sure don’t want the public finding out on a broad scale either.

Then there is the rusty old 1st Amendment. Even the Illinois Attorney General told Normal they can’t silence free speech with all their previous attempts to do just that with ridiculous Public Comment policies! Do ex-employees have less rights than citizens because Normal deemed it so? I don’t think so.

Normal isn’t a private corporation that can enforce confidentiality. Chris Koos just thinks he conducts “business meetings”. He always forgets the public servant part of those meetings.

The confidentiality paragraph is not in all Separation Agreements. They throw it in only when they want to scare someone into submission.

It is past time for some civil disobedience. Of course I won’t know about this if it wasn’t already happening.

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