REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
SUBMITTED TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
SUBMITTED BY: Oliver Chi, City Manager
PREPARED BY: Travis K. Hopkins, Assistant City Manager
Subject:
title
Review and Consider for Approval a Proposed Social Media Policy for Elected and Appointed Officials
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Statement of Issue:
On February 1, 2021, the City Council adopted the 2021 City Council Work Plan, which was established based off of a Strategic Planning Workshop held on January 5, 2021. As part of the adopted work plan, 5 key priority policy areas were identified by the City Council, and under the Community Engagement Priority, the City Council asked that staff develop for consideration a social media policy for elected and appointed officials.
Based on that direction, staff has developed for consideration a draft Social Media Policy for Elected and Appointed Officials (see Attachment A). Per the proposed regulation, elected and appointed City officials who utilize a social media account to promote, discuss, carry out, or reference City related business or activity would be required to abide by First Amendment requirements in managing any official social media account.
Financial Impact:
None
Recommended Action:
recommendation
Review and consider for approval the proposed, "Social Media Policy for Elected and Appointed Officials."
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Alternative Action(s):
Do not approve the proposed policy and provide staff with alternate direction.
Analysis:
In Packingham v. North Carolina, the US Supreme Court held that social media platforms serve as "the modern public square," and as such, social media platforms provide users with the opportunity to "petition their elected representatives and otherwise engage with them in a direct manner."
Subsequent court decisions have reaffirmed that government representatives who utilize social media platforms to promote, discuss, carry out, or reference issues related to their governmental role have created an official...
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