Under a new policy Milton Town Council is considering, public comment to the media could be restricted to the town manager and elected officials.

The issue was sparked by comments from Police Chief William Phillips in the Cape Gazette and other media following an Oct. 3 public meeting about gang and drug activity.

“I think there should be a policy in effect that says this is how we make determinations about who does interviews and what they have the authority to say,” said Councilwoman Deanna Duby. “This is not an attack on the chief. There was no policy; therefore he was violating no policy.”

At the Nov. 7 regular meeting, Mayor Cliff Newlands provided the council with media policies from towns in North Carolina and New Hampshire. Duby volunteered to work with town solicitor Seth Thompson to draft a policy for the Monday, Jan. 9 regular meeting.

Duby said she worked as a press spokesperson at two different organizations in Washington, D.C., and would like to see the town operate with a similar policy.

“I never ever had the authority to simply go out on my own and make a statement,” she said. “There was a chain of command of who made decisions; were we or were we not going to take the interview with the Washington Post or whoever it was; secondly, who was going to do it; and thirdly, what were, from the standpoint of the organization, the talking points we wanted to convey.”

A common element in both policies provided by Newlands was that the town manager has the authority to speak for the town. For matters involving an investigation or crisis situation, the police chief would be permitted to comment.

“I have no problem with the police chief having full authority to speak when there's a crisis situation or if he's dealing with an arrest,” Duby said. “What I'm talking about here is our general interviews to be done with the press in terms of, is there an increase of heroin use in town and are we going to put that out? Does the town government want there to be a front-page story about that?”

Duby said there is also council support to enact a media policy regarding council members, but she did not name those in support. Councilwoman Mary Hudson is against any such restrictions on council, but is in favor of a policy for town staff.

“Council members are accountable to the voters,” she said. “If you don't like what we're saying, you can vote us out of office. Employees, however, are not accountable to the voters; they are accountable to the people who hire them, and that would be the town manager or the town council.”

Newlands asked that the policy also include guidelines for social media websites and chat rooms.

By implementing a policy, Hudson said, town staff would be subject to disciplinary action for any comment to the media that was not approved by the town manager or council.