13-967 COM Policy and Procedures Creating 6.1.7 - Social MediaCITY OF MERIDIAN RESOLUTION NO. 13- 1~
BY THE CITY COUNCIL: BIRD, HOAGLUN, ROUNTREE, ZAREMBA
A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
MERIDIAN TO AMEND THE CITY OF MERIDIAN STANDARD OPERATING POLICY
AND PROCEDURE MANUAL BY CREATING A NEW POLICY 6.1.7 -SOCIAL MEDIA
AND A NEW SOCIAL MEDIA PROCEDURE; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE
DATE.
WHEREAS, the Mayor and City Council have authority over the operations, policies, and
procedures for the City of Meridian;
WHEREAS the City has previously approved a Standard Operating Policy and Procedures
Manual in 2002 for application to all employees of the City;
WHEREAS the City Council may amend the Manual from time to time as necessary to
incorporate changes as needed;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF
THE CITY OF MERIDIAN, IDAHO AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The City of Meridian Standard Operating Policies and Procedures Manual is
hereby amended as to new Policy 6.1.7 -Social Media and new Procedure -Social Media; a copy
of said policy and said procedure are attached and incorporated by reference as Exhibit "A".
SECTION 2. This Resolution shall be in full force and effect upon adoption and approval.
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ADOPTED by the City Council of the City of Meridian, Idaho, this ~ .day of
December, 2013.
2013.
h i of Meridian Idaho this a of December
APPROVED by the Mayor of t e C ty ~~ y ,
APPROVED:
ATTEST:
By:
ayce~I .Holman, City Clerk
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CITY OF MERIDIAN POLICY AND PROCEDURES MANUAL CREATING POLICY 6.1.7 -SOCIAL MEDIA AND NEVV
PROCEDURE REGARDING SOCIAL MEDIA -DECEMBER, 2013
CITY OF MERIDIAN
STANDARD OPERATING POLICY
NUMBER 6.1.7
SUBJECT: SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY
PURPOSE: To establish guidelines for the use of social media by the City of Meridian
("City") and its employees. The City of Meridian has an overriding
interest and expectation in deciding what is "spoken" on behalf of the City
on City social media sites.
SUMMARY: City social media sites maybe established only in full compliance with
this policy and City of Meridian Standard Operating Procedure. The City
may monitor employees' personal use of social media and require
adherence to the provisions of this policy in such use.
AUTHORITY & RESPONSIBILITY: The following policy shall apply to all employees in
their personal and work-related use of social media sites; supervisors and
department heads shall ensure compliance with this policy within their
respective departments.
I. DEFINITIONS
A. Social media site: A publicly accessible online publishing application, technology, or
website that provides information to the public via subscription, reference, network, or
drop-in. Asocial media site may provide a forum by which individuals may post
comments or other information. Examples of social media sites include blogs, podcasts,
Delicious, ExposureRoom, Facebook, Flickr, Google +; LinkedIn, MySpace, RSS,
Second Life, Twitter, and YouTube.
B. City social media site: A social media site that: a) is established or administered by the
City or by a City employee acting in his/her professional capacity; b) is held out to be
representative of, or held out to be established or used by, the City, or any department,
employee, commission, or component thereof; c) utilizes a City name, title, logo, or other
indicia of City endorsement, establishment, or administration of such social media site.
C. Non-City social media site: A social media site established or used by a City employee
acting in his/her personal capacity.
II. ESTABLISHMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF CITY SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
A. Any employee's establishment and administration of a City social media site shall follow,
in all respects, City of Meridian Standard Operating Procedure, including, but not limited
to, obtaining prior approval from the Mayor and the City of Meridian Communications
Manager. The failure to follow any component of City of Meridian Standard Operating
Procedure may result in disciplinary action.
B. The Mayor may order City employees to wholly remove City social media sites that are
established or administered in violation of City of Meridian Standard Operating
Procedure. The failure to remove a City social media site in accordance with such order
may result in disciplinary action.
C. City employees or officials using or administering City social media sites shall conduct
themselves at all times as a representative of the City and in accordance with all City
policies. A failure to do so may result in disciplinary action.
III. CITY EMPLOYEES° USE OF NON-CITY SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
A. City employees or officials using personal or non-City social media sites should be aware
that all social media sites are or maybe accessible to the public, including to other City
employees and officials.
B. City employees or officials shall not use personal or non-City social media sites in any
way that may adversely affect his or her employment, workplace and/or that of other City
employees, including, but not limited to, bullying, gossiping, sexual harassment, abuse of
City or other public resources, violation of City policies, or illegal activity. Such use of a
personal or non-City social media site may result in disciplinary action.
C. Where a City employee or official, acting in his/her personal capacity, wishes to use or
comment on a City or Non-City social media site: a) regarding work or subjects
associated with the City, or b) where such employee is or would reasonably be believed
to be speaking in his/her professional capacity as a representative of the City, the
provisions of this and other City policies shall apply and where necessary, the following
disclaimer should be used: "The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily
represent the positions or opinions of the City of Meridian."
D. City employees or officials shall not access or use personal or non-City social media sites
in a manner that causes loss of productivity during working hours.
CITY OF MERIDIAN
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
SUBJECT: SOCIAL MEDIA PROCEDURE
PURPOSE: To establish procedures for City employees to follow in establishing,
administering, and using City social media sites.
SUMMARY: City social media sites may be established only in full compliance with
this procedure, and must be monitored and maintained to ensure
responsiveness, fairness, and compliance with the terms of use.
AUTHORITY & RESPONSIBILITY: The following procedure shall apply to all employees in
their personal and work-related use of social media sites; supervisors and
department heads shall ensure compliance with this policy within their
respective departments.
I. DEFINITIONS
A. City social media site: A social media site established or used by the City or by a City
employee acting in his/her professional capacity.
B. Comments: Information, commentary, dialogue, links, pictures, videos, and/or other
forms of communicative content posted on a social media site.
C. Non-City social media site: A social media site established or used by a City employee
acting in his/her personal capacity.
D. Site Administrator: The City employee or official designated to establish, monitor and
maintain a City social media site.
E. Social media site: A publicly accessible online publishing application, technology, or
website that provides information to the public via subscription, reference, network, or
drop-in. Asocial media site may provide a forum by which individuals may post
comments or other information. Examples of social media sites include blogs, podcasts,
Delicious, ExposureRoom, Facebook, Flickr, Google +, LinkedIn, MySpace, RSS,
Second Life, Twitter, and YouTube.
F. User: Any person who accesses, views, follows, likes, links to in any manner, and/or
posts comments on a City social media cite.
II. ESTABLISHMENT OF CITY SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
A. No employee, City department, commission, or any other person shall establish a City
social media site without prior approval by the Mayor and the City of Meridian
Communications Manager.
B. Persons seeking to establish a City social media site shall submit to the Communications
Manager a written proposal, which shall include the following information:
L The purpose of the account and site;
2. The City employee(s) or official(s) designated to establish, monitor and maintain the
site;
3. Whether Users may post comments or messages on or through the site, and if so the
schedule and plan for reviewing and following up on such comments; and
4. The proposed approach to removal of any comments pursuant to this policy.
C. All City social media sites shall be administered or overseen by a Site Administrator
designated by the director of the department creating the new social media site. Upon
creation of the site, the Site Administrator shall provide to the Communications Manager
all login information and passwords necessary to administer the social media site, and
shall provide any updated login or password information to the Communications
Manager. Upon separation from City employment, the Site Administrator shall provide
to the Communications Manager all login information and passwords necessary to
administer the social media site, and shall relinquish and transfer all administrator rights
to the Communications Manager.
D. The Mayor may require that a City social media site be wholly removed, though removal
of individual messages may occur only pursuant to the criteria and procedures set forth in
this policy.
E. A Terms of Use Statement (see Appendix A) shall be prepared for each City social media
site. Where ever possible, the Terms of Use Statement must be displayed or made
available by hyperlink on each City social media site.
III. CITY°S USE AND MAINTENANCE OF CITY SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
A. All Citysocial media sites shall adhere to applicable federal, state and local laws,
regulations and City policies.
B. All City social media sites shall make clear that they are maintained by the City.
C. The City of Meridian's website at http://www.meridiancity.org will remain the City's
primary and predominant Internet presence. Wherever possible, City social media sites
should link back to the official City of Meridian website for information, documents,
online services and other information necessary to conduct business with the City of
Meridian.
D. The site administrator shall respond within one working day to all comments or posts in
which a User asks a question or requesting feedback. When the site administrator
responds to a comment, in his/her capacity as a City of Meridian employee, the
employee's name and title should be made available, and the employee shall not share
personal information about himself or herself, or other City employees.
E. The Communications Manager shall monitor content on all City social media sites to
ensure adherence to these procedures, consistency with the interests and goals of the City
of Meridian, and enterprise-wide consistency in messaging and information across
platforms and site administrators.
F. Content posted by the City and comments posted by Users on City social media sites
contain records of subject to the Idaho Public Records Act. Any content posted or
maintained in a social media format that is related to City business, including a list of
subscribers, posted communication, and communication submitted for posting, may be a
public record subject to public disclosure.
G. The site administrator or Communications Manager may remove and/or restrict
comments containing or uploading any of the following inappropriate forms of content,
including:
1. Content that is deemed in violation of the City's Social Media Policy, these terms of
use, the terms and conditions of use of [Name of Site] or any applicable federal, state
or local law;
2. Profane, obscene, indecent, violent, or pornographic content;
3. Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race,
creed, color, age, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or national origin;
4. Defamatory or personal attacks;
5. Threats to any person or organization;
6. Encouragement or incitement of illegal activity;
7. Information that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public or public
systems;
8. Content that violates a known legal ownership interest, such as a copyright, of any
party; or
9. Any content that contains or perpetuates a virus, corrupted file, or other defect or
program that may cause damage.
H. Any comments removed based on these guidelines must be retained by the site's
administrator in accordance with the City's records retention schedule. The time, date
and identity of the poster, may be retained with this record whenever available.
I. City employees or officials using or administering City social media sites shall conduct
themselves at all times as a representative of the City and in accordance with all City
policies.
APPENDIX A
TERMS OF USE STATEMENT
Terms of Public's Use of NName of Site]
This [type of social media] is intended to [description of purpose]. Any comment or materials
posted by a User of this site maybe attributed only to that User, and does not necessarily reflect
the positions or opinions of the City of Meridian, its employees or officials. The City of
Meridian does not warrant the accuracy of any statement or claim made here, is not responsible
for any User-generated content, and does not endorse any opinion expressed here. All Users
must comply in all respects with [name of social media site]'s and the City of Meridian's Terms
of Public's Use of City Social Media sites. The following terms of use shall also apply:
1. The City seeks to serve all of its constituents by hosting an open but civil dialogue.
Reasonable arguments for opposing views are encouraged.
2. Users shall have no right of privacy on the City's social media sites, as such sites may be or
contain public records subject to disclosure pursuant to the Idaho Public Records Act and the
City's records retention schedule.
3. A comment posted by a member of the public on any City social media site is the opinion of
the commentator or poster only. Publication of a comment does not imply endorsement of,
or agreement by, the City of Meridian, nor do such comments necessarily reflect the opinions
or policies of the City of Meridian.
4. Comments should relate to the topic being discussed in the original post, should not contain
random or unintelligible information or text, and should not be wholly an advertisement of
commercial products or services.
5. Comments containing or uploading any of the following inappropriate forms of content are
subject to removal and/or restriction:
a. Content that is deemed in violation of City policy, these terms of use, the terms and
conditions of use of [Name of Site], or any applicable federal, state or local law;
b. Profane, obscene, indecent, violent, or pornographic content;
c. Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed,
color, age, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or national origin;
d. Defamatory or personal attacks;
e. Threats to any person or organization;
£ Encouragement or incitement of illegal activity;
g. Information that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public or public
systems;
h. Content that violates a known legal ownership interest, such as a copyright, of any party;
or
i. Any content that contains or perpetuates a virus, corrupted file, or other defect or
program that may cause damage.
6. All use of this site shall be bound by the [Name of Site] terms and conditions of use. Where
appropriate, City may report any violation of such terms and conditions to [Name of Site].
7. These terms may be revised at any time.
8. A User's submission, posting, or other publication of a comment constitutes acceptance of
these terms.