City Employees, Elected Officials and Social Media

Have you ever wondered why a City Employee or an Elected official may not respond to a social media post about the City, or that they were tagged in?

City Employees

City Employees are not allowed to engage in those posts. All employees of the city are bound by their employee policies, and a violation could lead to termination of employment. Those policies include a provision specifically related to social media. The policy is under the section titled, “USE OF MEDIA / MEDIA REQUESTS”. You can read the entire policy on page 25 from the link below. The policy states, “Unless specifically authorized by the Mayor, City Administrator or Public Information Officer, employees shall not publish or otherwise provide information for use in any form of media in a manner that suggests or implies that it is an official position or policy of the City. Employees are encouraged to either refrain from publishing information that may violate this policy or request guidance from the City Administrator prior to publishing any information that may violate this policy. Depending on the circumstance, failure to seek such guidance may be considered evidence of intent to conceal a violation of this policy and to hinder an investigation into the matter.” Those conditions include: “attacks, demeans or disparages another employee, the Mayor, or the City Council related to any City issue or matter in a manner that is threatening, abusive or unprofessional” as well as, “places in doubt the honesty, reliability, trustworthiness, or sound judgment of the employee”. To avoid problems, the policy has the following clause, “All requests from the media shall be directed to and managed by the Public Information Director. The Public Information Director will then notify the Mayor regarding all such requests from the media. In the event the Public Information Director is unavailable, media requests will be directed to and managed by the City Administrator or, in his absence, the Assistant City Administrator.” Eagle Mountain’s Communications & Community Relations Director is Linda Peterson.

Elected Officials

During the March 21st City Council meeting, Tom Westmoreland specifically talked about how he does not use Facebook to conduct city business, and how he would like people to stop tagging city council members in political Facebook posts. Tom has made this statement on the subject of social media and being an elected official

Re: city council and social media “Oligarchy: A government run by a small group of people.” Of the many threats to a free society few are more subtle or as common as oligarchy. It is the subtle nature of oligarchy that makes it so dangerous. Whether conservative or liberal, even the most well intended people can easily fall into this trap before they realize what they have done. Being that three members of the city council constitutes a quorum, they can make decisions for the city that not even the mayor can veto. For this reason we have laws that govern how the council meets and conducts city business. With few and very specific exceptions a quorum of the council is to conduct city business in an open and public meeting that has been properly advertised ahead of time. Should a council not adhere to the open meeting laws, it becomes an oligarchy. The law makes no exception for social media. Even in a tech savvy society, Facebook, which by design is spontaneous and creates exclusive groupings, does not qualify as a legal setting for a quorum to discuss city business. In offering my opinion, in no way do I intend to besmirch the character of others but to make my concern known and give warning that innocent intentions and the ease of Facebook cannot excuse the practice sufficiently to protect the city council from legal consequence, nor can it excuse the unintended consequence of establishing a bad precedent. Principle is often cited as a motive in politics even when no principle is named. However, in this case our actions speak of our understanding and dedication to the constitutional principle of a republican form of government and how determined we are to stand against detractors, such as oligarchy, without excuse of cause or intent. By definition, principles are the things that we place first and foremost in our lives. As elected representatives of the people sworn to defend the constitution we stand as guardians of that constitution and the principles therein. Should we be tempted place any cause or ambition ahead of those principles, we have abandoned our post and sworn duty. For this reason I have chosen to carefully limit my Facebook comments regarding city business. Thanks, Tom Westmoreland Eagle Mountain City Council

Colby Curtis, also on the City Council, also had this to say about discussing policies on Facebook or social media.

“I find that policy discussion on social media is rarely productive and leaves far too much room for misinterpretation of people’s intentions. I don’t mind residents contacting me through public posts, but I cannot and will not always respond, especially if the post is particularly one-sided or primarily designed to publicly shame. I almost always respond to honest inquiry for facts but engaging in policy debate will not be a top priority. I am always happy to have policy conversations with individuals via phone or email (which despite email being electronic, I find the non-immediate nature of it to be a bit more thought-provoking and rational than social media). In short, I use it, but it is not my preferred method of interaction, more of a necessary evil.”

Adam Bradley, also a City Council Member has this to say about social media.

I am a fan of “social media” I love how personal and close to home it can be. But it does have it’s downsides. Like most things on the internet it allows for a certain amount of distance to be drawn which in turn seems to give people more gumption than they would have face-to-face. Someone who wouldn’t be so mean or harsh in person now feels that they can be online. One major lesson I have learned in being on the council is that nothing is a cut and dry as it seems (and certainly not as most portray issues on social media). There are more than 2 sides to a lot of stories. I take it serious to do my job to look at all sides of an issue before I make up my mind. We have to be willing to compromise and do the best for the most people. Here are my thoughts on social media. As far as I know, It never constitutes as a quorum on social media. I have never been told that it does or could be looked at as a quorum. As council members, we are citizens, not staff, we are not restricted from making any comments on social media (just take Trump as an example). Prior to a vote we should reserve our comments to information and not opinion. I feel it my job to inform the public on what I know. I do however like to the explain to the public after a vote as to why I voted the way I did. I admit that I don’t always take the time do so because I feel that I explain myself pretty well at the meetings; there is usually never a doubt as to how I feel about a subject. Also the meetings are on YouTube and public records.

Additional Resources

Eagle Mountain Employee Policies and Procedures