From Nick Stonesifer. Before I link to excerpts, I really like how Spotlight Delaware places stories in context:
Why Should Delaware Care?
Non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, have often been used by powerful individuals to keep unflattering or unethical behavior under wraps. A new report from Spotlight Delaware found Democratic leadership pushed staffers to sign NDAs of their own, without providing them a copy.
From the story:
Four Democrats in Delaware’s House of Representatives said multiple staffers were directed by former caucus leadership to sign non-disclosure agreements in the past year, without providing them their own copies.
Those representatives, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal party actions, said they were blindsided with the information as they voted on new House leadership. A debate ensued, where multiple members raised concerns about the practice and some questioned its legality.
But as former House Majority Whip Kerri Evelyn Harris, a member of the caucus who acts as a bridge between staff and leadership, was getting ready to be elected House majority leader, those representatives said she defended the move.
The news comes less than a week after Democrats selected Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown to serve as the new Speaker of the House, following a single session with former Rep. Valerie Longhurst at the helm.
It’s unclear how many staffers were asked to sign NDAs, and the extent of the agreements. But when members of the caucus asked why they would be signed in the first place, they were told it was to protect constituent confidentiality.
“No one is buying that,” one representative told Spotlight Delaware. “It is especially strange because only some staff were made to sign them, and they were not given copies for their own records.”
Nobody should buy that. In over twenty years of doing constituent work, the thought of violating constituent confidentiality never occurred to me. Or to anyone else I worked with.
Minor Mimi and Turncoat Kerri are off to a great start.