It's long past time for local governments to respect employee rights

St. Johns County history was made November 20th when the AMCD adopted a policy to protect employee whistleblower rights to raise concerns, to wit, "AMCD POLICY 2008-01 -- PROTECTING SAFETY, HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT AND EMPLOYEE RIGHTS TO RAISE CONCERNS" (see below).

Now it's time for St. Johns County, the City of St. Augustine, the City of St. Augustine Beach, the Town of Hastings, the St. Johns River Water Management District and other local governments to do the same.

After 443 years of Caudillos and Tin Pot Napoleon dictators in St. Johns County and St. Augustine, it's time to let our government employees speak out without fear of retaliation.

What do you reckon?

At Thanksgiving, be thankful that at least one of our local governments -- AMCD -- has issued a policy protecting employee rights to speak their truth without fear or favor.

As Robert F. Kennedy said at Berkeley, "it is not enough to allow dissent, we must demand it, for there is much to dissent from."