City’s new press officer to be suppressed?

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — Kevin Killough’s days as press officer for the city are probably over.

City Manager Gerald Herrera said Wednesday that he is looking at removing Killough as the city’s press officer, a position he has held since early January.

Herrera’s decision comes a day after the Gallup City Council met in executive session to hear complaints about a city employee. That employee was Killough, who was hired as the city’s grant writer and later given the extra duties as press officer.

Killough, a former reporter for the Gallup Independent, is the first press officer the city has had in years. In the past, news releases were handled either by the city manager or the city clerk and Herrera said he would not appoint a new press officer after Killough steps down and would handle the duties himself.

In his four months in office, Killough managed to get at least one member of the city council angry with him.

E. Bryan Wall wrote a memo before Tuesday’s council session in which he outlined his objections to the way Killough was handling his job and detailed a recent conversation he had with Killough.

But Wall wasn’t the only one who expressed concerns during the executive session, according to officials. The other three council members also expressed varying levels of displeasure.

Wall’s main objection to Killough was his attitude toward his former boss, Bob Zollinger, and his former place of employment, the Gallup Independent. Killough had worked for the paper for more than a year as a reporter covering City Hall.

Since becoming a city employee, Killough has started a campaign on the Internet against the paper and its publisher.

He has written regular blogs outlining his displeasure at the coverage the paper was giving to city issues and he attacked Zollinger in a series of videos he placed on YouTube.

These videos also featured Zollinger, who was questioned by Killough on camera about his policies and his actions dealing with Bob Weekes, who is greens superintendent at the city’s golf course.

Calling himself a watchdog for the public, Killough questioned Zollinger repeatedly in the first video about why the paper did not print a letter he had written to the editor. The other subject concerned a confrontation that Zollinger and Weekes had outside City Hall.

In his memo, Wall said he had read the blogs and found most of them to be “misleading and gutter-type filth.”

City employees shouldn’t behave like this, Wall said. With the support of Herrera, Wall said, Killough “seems to be creating a negative mode against anyone ... he dislikes.”

April 1 attack

Wall said he was especially upset at an April 1 news release that he felt was “very much in the gutter, sick, filthy and X-rated writing.”

The release, which Kilough claims was done in the manner of an April Fools prank, described two reporters for the Independent — Gaye Brown de Alvarez and sports editor Allan Arthur — as being totally under the thumb of Zollinger.

Well, actually, the two were described as being inside a certain orifice of Zollinger’s body that is not mentioned in polite society and is definitely not mentioned in a family newspaper. The news release was e-mailed and faxed to the newspaper and posted on his blog.

In his conversation with Killough, Wall said he talked with a female city employee who told him that no city employee could talk to the press without Killough’s permission and that Killough was responsible for giving out the news to local outlets — The Gallup Herald, Town Talk and John McBreen, a local radio reporter.

Wall said he asked if it was an oversight that she had not mentioned the Independent but the woman would not give an answer.

Wall also talked to Mayor Harry Mendoza, who said he had talked to Killough. Wall said he asked Mendoza if he should talk to him as well and Mendoza said “Yes, I’d like you to talk to him.”

Mendoza, interviewed on Wednesday, said this was incorrect. What he told Wall, he said, was that “you are an elected official and you can do what you want.”

When he talked to Killough, Wall said he expected him to send the releases to all of the media.

Killough’s response, according to Wall: “You can’t tell me who I can send news items to. I’ll send to whoever I want.”

During his tenure as press officer, Killough would provide all of the outlets except the Independent copies of his news releases. He would, however, talk to Independent reporters if they were referred to him by other city employees.

More professional

Wall said he talked to Killough about being more professional in his handling of the press and his writing of the blogs because they could bring shame to the city. “You can’t tell me what I can and cannot do,” Killough reportedly told Wall.

“It’s none of your business. You can’t stop me.”

As a city councilman, Wall doesn’t have the authority to issue directives to city employees — that’s the function of the city manager.

In fact, Herrera later sent a memo to city employees in connection with the Wall-Killough conversation.

“It has come to my attention that the new city councilors may be putting city staff into uncomfortable positions. Please pass down at your staff meetings that all staff should respectfully and tactfully defer to the city manager anything that needs attention or deviates from the normal way that the city is currently doing business. This way, either myself, the city attorney or the mayor can address the legal ramifications.”

He also mentioned in the memo that city personnel are protected by the city code “from the reach of the elected officials.”

In Wall’s meeting with Killough, Wall told him that he had given a copy of all Killough’s blogs to the other members of the city council.

“All of us agreed this was wrong and may well be against city ethic rules,” Wall remembers saying. “I do no want to see the city harmed as you vent your personal vendetta, as a city employee, against your former employer ...”

The two then argued about whether the U.S. Constitution gave Killough the right to publish his blogs. Wall said he then advised Killough to cease writing “any more nasty blogs.”

“If you try to stop me,” Wall quoted Killough as saying, “I will sue you through the federal courts for violating my civil rights and the Constitution of the U.S. and for racial discrimination.”

Wall’s reply: “I don’t know where they got you, Kevin. But I’m through talking. See you.”

Killough was given a copy of Wall’s version of the conversation between the two and was asked for a comment. He declined to give one.