The Bardstown City Council has unanimously passed a new law to protect whistleblowers. The law will be similar to the one that protects state employees.
Bardstown City Councilman John Kelley explained the city ordinance allows criminal penalties of up to 12 months in jail and/or a $500 fine for those who retaliate against whistleblowers.
“We wanted to afford the city employees the same protections that the state employees have,” Kelley said.
The new law comes in response to an ongoing investigation into whether Bardstown city resources were improperly used to influence November’s City Council elections.
“We have investigators that will be talking to city employees or that are talking to city employees and this way they can feel free to discuss openly and honestly. We want people to be honest about it,” Kelley said.
The ordinance goes into effect Friday.
