Beyond the chilling statement that the city “monitors” social media, there are clearly issues with the city finance director running a Facebook page purporting to be a source of information for the community.
The employee spends time on this pursuit while at work - therefore being paid by the city for this social media work. While purporting to be disseminating City Information, a role that implies she is running a city sanctioned page, this person also selectively removes posts and bans users from participating. When questioned, she then claims she’s a private individual expressing her views so that she can claim she has the power to delete posts. And yet again, the mayor claims he backs her in this activity and allows her to do it on City time.
So you see the problem - either she’s a private citizen running a private group, and should be doing this on her own time, or she’s doing this as an extension of her city job responsibilities and is “informing” the city. In that case, she CANNOT be removing posts and blocking users from commenting.
You simply cannot have it both ways. Claiming it’s a private page so that you can remove people us just a way to subvert the law.
People are questioning this on the city municipal page. It’s an issue that is not going to go away.
I posted this on the page and I think it’s time members of council woke up. If you want constituents to engage with the city and it’s leadership, is this how you want it done? Recognize that as a council member, your duty is to serve your city. What is going on now is not only angering a lot of people, it is putting the city in yet another legal bind.
Time to convene and assess the current situation. Perhaps a written policy in social media usage is in order.
Putting all legal questions aside, do you want your city to use an employee to communicate with you who, if you ask a question or make any remark that is viewed as even remotely “negative” toward the mayor or administration, has the authority to delete your comment and exclude you from the conversation? That’s what this boils down to. If Pae believes she’s merely acting as a conduit of information about the city, then she has no business being the judge and jury of whether a constituents question is “appropriate.” She and the mayor are clearly mistaken and confused over her role, and they need to clarify and codify precisely the role she plays as a city employee. I would suggest that this is a perfect time for the current city council to get involved. If the goal is transparency and community involvement, then these are issues that all of council should be aware of and be part of the solution. How this ridiculous “she’s a private citizen/no she’s an employee sharing information” dichotomy is allowed to continue reflects poorly on council. Step up, council, and clear this up once and for all.
