CLAYTON — St. Louis County voters will decide Tuesday whether to strengthen whistleblower protections for county employees reporting allegations of wrongdoing.

The whistleblower measure, Proposition A, would update the county’s 25-year-old whistleblower law by extending the protections to volunteers and interns and adding protections for whistleblowing to the news media, any law enforcement officer or state official.

The current ordinance, last updated in 1997, forbids supervisors from prohibiting or retaliating against employees who report allegations to the County Council or County Auditor.

Proposition A would give employees alleging retaliation a year to file a complaint, up from 10 days now. It would also define retaliation to include any warning or recommendation for discipline by any county “officer,” and protect employees for alleging a “conflict of interest, or unlawful discrimination,” in addition to misconduct.

Proposition A was championed by Councilwoman Rita Heard Days, D-1st District, who twice tried to push through a similar law that was vetoed by County Executive Sam Page. A 2017 state law provides whistleblower protections, but Days said she wanted to go further than the state law as a matter of “simply protecting the employees.”

Page and council allies argued the bill was too broad, citing language that specifies the county couldn’t bar employees from testifying under legislative subpoena. Page said that would leave the county subject to...

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