HomeMy WebLinkAbout030920_cabs01 JEFFERSON COUNTY
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
REGULAR AGENDA REQUEST
TO: Board of County Commissioners �,/4���" 0
Philip Morley,County Administrator /"liV/0.0 2 0
FROM: Mark McCauley,Central Servic erector
DATE: March 9,2020
SUBJECT: RESOLUTION: Board of County Commissioners approval of a Social Media Policy
for Jefferson County
STATEMENT OF ISSUE: Jefferson Countyidentified the need to adopt a policy for
governing it use
of social media.
ANALYSIS: Jefferson County has been developing a policy for governing its use of social media. Draft
policies were circulated to all elected officials and department directors for comment.The Board of
County Commissioners reviewed a draft Social Media Policy at their March 2,2020 meeting and gave
staff additional guidance regarding the draft policy.
The attached draft incorporates the input received during this process.
The draft policy also includes best practices recommended by MRSC and found in social media policies
around the State of Washington.
For convenience Jefferson County posting guidelines referenced in the policy are attached.
FISCAL IMPACT: This request has no fiscal impact.
RECOMMENDATION: That the Board of County Commissioners approve the attached resolution
approving and adopting the draft social media policy.
REVIEWED BY:
3 4/2/_:7 _,
Philip Morley'Cot�nty Administrator_ Date
Social Media Posting Guidelines
Content on Jefferson County social media sites is intended to supplement information published
on the County website or in County documents. As such, content is continually updated and
may not be free from error.
Moderation of Third-Party Content
This Jefferson County social media site serves as a limited public forum and all content
published is subject to monitoring. User-generated comments will be documented and removed
when the content:
• is off-subject or out of context • contains obscenity or material that appeals to the prurient
interest • contains personal identifying information or sensitive personal information • contains
offensive terms that target protected classes • is threatening, harassing or discriminatory •
incites or promotes violence or illegal activities • contains information that reasonably could
compromise individual or public safety • advertises or promotes a commercial product or
service, or any entity or individual • promotes or endorses political campaigns or candidates.
Public Records Requests
• Jefferson County's social media sites are not intended to be used for submitting public records
requests. The County's public records webpage provides links to large numbers of public
documents, readily available online via the County website. To make a public records request in
accordance with Chapter 42.56 RCW and the Jefferson County public records policy, the
easiest way is to access the County's online public records request submission form here.
Public Comment
• Jefferson County's social media sites are not the proper way to submit formal public comment in
response to hearing notices. Rather, formal public comment should be submitted to the Board of
County Commissioners in one of these ways:
• By email to jeffbocc(c�co.lefferson.wa.us
• By mail to Public Comments/BOCC, PO Box 1220, Port Townsend, WA 98368
• In person at the BOCC Office in the County Courthouse.
• All content posted on Jefferson County social media sites is considered a public record, and
may be subject to public disclosure. Therefore, before commenting anywhere on our sites,
please be aware that everything you write will be viewable by other members of the public.
JEFFERSON COUNTY
STATE OF WASHINGTON
IN THE MATTER OF ADOPTING A JEFFERSON} RESOLUTION NO.
COUNTY SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY }
WHEREAS, Jefferson County wishes to use social media as a method for communicating with the
public and increasing government transparency; and
WHEREAS, adopting a policy to govern the use of social media by Jefferson County is a best
government practice; and
WHEREAS, the county has developed a draft Social Media Policy; and
WHEREAS, the draft Social Media Policy was developed using best practices recommended by MRSC
and from other governments around the State of Washington; and
WHEREAS, all county departments and elected offices have been consulted in developing the draft
Social Media Policy; therefore
BE IT RESOLVED that the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners hereby approves and adopts the
attached Social Media Policy
APPROVED this day of , 2020.
JEFFERSON COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
SEAL:
Greg Brotherton, Chair
ATTEST:
Kate Dean, Member
Carolyn Gallaway,
Deputy Clerk of the Board David Sullivan, Member
lefferson County, WA Social Media Policy
Table of Contents
1. PURPOSE 2
2. APPLICABILITY 2
3. DEFINITIONS 2
4. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 3
4.1 Jefferson County Administrator's Office. 3
4.2 Central Services Director 3
4.3 Elected Officials. 4
4.4 Departments. 4
4.5 Authorized Agents 4
4.6 Records Management 5
5. IMPLEMENTATION 5
5.1 Creating New Social Media Accounts 5
5.2 Existing Social Media Accounts. 5
5.3 Working with Consultants. 5
6. USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA 6
6.1 Professional Use. 6
6.2 Personal Use. 6
7. ENGAGING WITH THE PUBLIC 7
7.1 Standards. 7
7.2 Comments Policy. 8
7.3 Privacy Policy. 9
7.4 Customer Service. 9
8. PUBLIC RECORDS ACT AND RECORDS RETENTION 9
8.1 Records Retention. 9
8.2 Public Records Act Applies. 10
8.3 Page Frezer 10
9. SECURITY 10
10. SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS 11
10.1 Desktop Applications. 11
10.2 Mobile Apps. 11
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Jefferson County, WA Social Media Policy
1. PURPOSE
The role of technology in the 21st century workplace is constantly expanding. Social media
tools such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs can improve interactivity between government
agencies and the public,reaching new and different populations from traditional media
sources. The goal of the County's social media channels is to serve as an online information
source focused on county issues, projects, news and events, and is not intended as a public
forum."
Jefferson County departments and elected offices desiring to use social media should
choose a combination of traditional and social media that complement each other and
distribute information to appropriate audiences. This policy is designed to inform
employees and the public, and to ensure transparency and consistency when incorporating
social media into Jefferson County communications and outreach efforts.
All Jefferson County communications, including social media, are public records and must
be managed in compliance with public records law, as discussed further in Section 8.
2. APPLICABILITY
This policy is applicable to employees of Commissioner departments and elected offices
that create or contribute to social media on behalf of Jefferson County. Elected offices that
choose to create social media accounts that are not in compliance with this policy forfeit
their right to legal coverage by Jefferson County.
3. DEFINITIONS
3.1 Authorized Agent: Employee or stakeholder who has been authorized to post
social media content on behalf of a Jefferson County Department.
3.2 Brand and Style Standards: Refers to the design ethic that governs the use of
Jefferson County and department logos, nameplates, color schemes, and visual
identities. Government style standards can be found here:
https://www.usa.gov/style-guide/style-guidance
3.3 Central Services Director: Designated Jefferson County employee responsible
for social media governance, implementation and strategy; works directly with
departments and authorized agents to drive social media initiatives across
Jefferson County.
3.4 Consultants: Refers to individual contractors and employees who work for
organizations other than Jefferson County, including agencies, partners,
stakeholders, and other government entities.
3.5 County Administrator's Office: Leadership representing commissioner
departments which includes, among others, the Central Services director.
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Jefferson County, WA Social Media Policy
3.6 Departments: Commissioner departments and all elected offices.
3.7 Jefferson County Information Services (JCIS): Commissioner department
responsible for information management and governance, system maintenance
and security; network design and maintenance.
3.8 Limited Public Forum: A public forum created by the government for
expressive activity that may be restricted as to subject matter.
3.9 Mobile Apps: Technologies that can be downloaded to smartphones and tablets
and accessed on the go; provides publishing abilities to authorized agents who
work at a Jefferson County worksite or offsite.
3.10 Records Management: Operations staff that assists departments in meeting
their obligations to the citizens of Jefferson County through responsible public
records management as outlined in Ch. 40.14 RCW.
3.11 Social Media: Online technologies used to communicate, share information and
listen to public feedback. This includes third-party accounts such as Facebook
and Twitter as well as vendors such as GovDelivery and Peak Democracy. Some
social media are intended to be interactive, such as Twitter. For Jefferson County
use, Facebook is not intended to be interactive. Other social media sites serve
specific purposes. One example is LinkedIn,which is a professional networking,
job seeking and recruiting platform for professionals and organizations seeking
qualified recruits for vacant job opportunities.
3.12 Social Media Action Plan (SMAP): Official document departments are required
to complete before creating new social media accounts; outlines key questions
related to the use of social media, including target audience, goals and resources.
4. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
4.1 Jefferson County Administrator's Office.
The Jefferson County Administrator's Office will be advised of approved social medial
accounts that have been approved by the Central Services Director.
4.2 Central Services Director.
The Central Services Director will:
• Develop brand/style standards for Jefferson County.
• Approve social media accounts for use by departments, and review new types of
social media for effectiveness, efficiencies and security.
• Work directly with departments to coordinate social media strategies and tactics,
including digital communications for specific events and programs.
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Jefferson County, WA Social Media Policy
• Keep up with trends in social media and provide training materials and workshops
for departments and authorized agents who use social media regularly.
• Provide training opportunities for employees on best practices and implementation
on an ongoing basis.
• Manage the program for documenting authorized agents, account logins and
passwords for the purpose of emergency management.
• Evaluate effectiveness of social media,working with departments to determine
success metrics.
• Consider records retention and public records issues whenever implementing social
media.
4.3 Elected Officials.
Elected Officials will:
• Comply with this policy if they wish to use an official social media account.
• Separate personal and candidate social media accounts from official social media
accounts if using social media accounts.
• Avoid electioneering on official social media accounts.
• Avoid content that endorses or opposes political candidates or ballot propositions,
including links to any campaign sites.
• Avoid content that promotes or advertises commercial services, entities or products.
4.4 Departments.
Departments will:
• Obtain prior approval from Central Services before creating social media accounts.
• Oversee and manage social media accounts in use by staff.
• Designate and train authorized agents in proper use of social media; refer to this
policy and employee training created by Central Services.
• Monitor the access levels of consultants working with the department on social
media.
• Provide Central Services with up-to-date lists of social media accounts, account
logins and passwords for the purpose of emergency management.
• Change social media passwords every 90 days per security best practices, or
immediately if authorized agents are removed as administrators or leave Jefferson
County employment.
• Manage records retention of social media in conformity with Jefferson County and
Washington state recordkeeping requirements.
4.5 Authorized Agents.
Authorized Agents will:
• Uphold standards and values when representing a department on social media.
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• Manage interactive social media proactively by answering questions or responding
to inquiries within 24 hours during the standard work week, and flagging concerns
when appropriate.
• Work with Central Services to employ best practices for social media use.
• Monitor and measure social media, analyzing effectiveness and making
recommendations to the department for continuous improvement.
4.6 Records Management.
Records Management will with departments to identify appropriate retention periods of
social media accounts based on the legal, fiscal, administrative, and historical value of the
information.
5. IMPLEMENTATION
5.1 Creating New Social Media Accounts.
When planning to launch new social media accounts, departments will work with Central
Services to complete a SMAP that addresses key questions, including:
• Overall vision for social media strategy
• Why a specific social media account is the right fit
• Goals and objectives
• Target audiences
• Resources and staff time needed
• Marketing and public feedback opportunities
• Equity considerations
• Records retention
• Success metrics
Once the SMAP is completed, Central Services will evaluate requests for social media,verify
authorized agents, and identify which trainings need to be completed before moving
forward.
5.2 Existing Social Media Accounts.
Departments using social media accounts created prior to the publication of this policy
must work with Central Services to complete a SMAP.
5.3 Working with Consultants.
Departments may work with outside consultants, agencies, partners, stakeholders, and
other government entities to promote services and engage in public outreach.While these
relationships are crucial to Jefferson County's success, consultants will not manage social
media accounts on behalf of Jefferson County departments due to security and compliance
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Jefferson County, WA Social Media Policy
concerns. Contact Central Services for questions about working with consultants and
vendors.
6. USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
6.1 Professional Use.
Only authorized agents may post content to social media accounts on behalf of a
department.Authorized agents should consult their department's leadership regarding
social media use within their department to ensure social media content is consistent with
the department's communications strategy.
Authorized agents posting using Jefferson County social media accounts to comment on
other social media accounts will obtain the approval of their manager or department
director before posting such comment.
Authorized agents will not endorse any commercial enterprise, candidate for election or
any other organization or cause without the approval of their manager or department
director.
Authorized agents should verify that written material,visual images, graphics and other
content is not copyrighted or otherwise protected from authorized use.Appropriate
releases from content owners should be obtained before using such protected material or
appropriate credit must be given to the owners of such content.
Do not disclose confidential or proprietary information acquired by way of your official
position with Jefferson County. This restriction applies whether the information is
disclosed on professional or personal social media accounts, or by any other method.
Do not use personal social media accounts for work purposes. This is to facilitate
compliance with public records law and protect information on your personal accounts
from public disclosure.
You should always consider whether it's appropriate to post an opinion online, commit
your department to a course of action, or discuss areas outside of your expertise.
Hourly employees should not work on social media after hours without prior approval.
This is considered overtime, and failure to obtain prior authorization may be cause for
corrective action.
Inappropriate use of social media in violation of these professional and personal guidelines
can be grounds for corrective action, including disciplinary action.
6.2 Personal Use.
You may access your personal social media accounts at work for limited personal
communications as long as use occurs before or after normal work hours or during breaks
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Jefferson County, WA Social Media Policy
and the lunch period and prior approval has been obtained from your supervisor or
department director. Please refer to the Jefferson County Personnel Administration Manual
regarding de minimis use of Jefferson County equipment.
Do not use a Jefferson County email address when using social media in personal
capacities. For example, do not create a personal Facebook, Twitter or Linkedln account
using your co.jefferson.wa.us email address.
If you identify yourself as a Jefferson County employee when conducting personal social
media activities, consider stating in your profile that your comments are not on behalf of
Jefferson County government. Examples include:
• Twitter bio: Tweets are my own, not those of Jefferson County.
• Blog or website bio: While I work for Jefferson County, anything I publish is my
personal opinion and not necessarily the opinions or position of Jefferson County
government.
Whether or not you specify on your personal social media accounts that you work for
Jefferson County,your employment with the County is public record. Be mindful that
whenever you discuss issues online,whether in a personal or professional capacity,your
comments can be tied back to your employment with Jefferson County.
Nothing in this policy is meant to prevent an employee from exercising his or her right to
make a complaint of discrimination or other workplace misconduct, engage in lawful
collective bargaining activity, or to express an opinion on a matter of public concern that
does not unduly disrupt Jefferson County operations.
7. ENGAGING WITH THE PUBLIC
7.1 Standards.
Social media posts made on behalf of Jefferson County should include no form of profanity,
obscenity or threatening language.
Social media posts should be news-worthy, informative,timely, and direct the reader to
more information.
Be mindful of the images and content you use on social media, and do not violate another's
copyright or trademark restrictions. Inappropriate use of social media can be grounds for
corrective action, including disciplinary action.
Direct and private messaging on official social media accounts is strongly discouraged.
When possible, use system settings to auto-reply stating that we do not reply to direct
messages and redirecting the user to an appropriate contact person's phone number or
email address.
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Jefferson County, WA Social Media Policy
It is not appropriate to engage in arguments with members of the public who may be
critical of your department. Once you make comments or posts on social media sites, they
can typically be seen by anyone and will be archived.
Departments should have an approved plan to address offensive remarks on social media
accounts. If there is any question or hesitation regarding the content of a comment or post,
ask your manager, department head, or Central Services.
Social media accounts managed by Jefferson County departments will include a terms of
use statement approved in advance by Central Services, such as:
Jefferson County reserves the right to remove comments that include
inappropriate content and those which violate a copyright, trademark or the
terms of service of the social media platform.
7.2 Comments Policy.
Jefferson County accepts comments from the public, however, comments must comply with
the County's posting guidelines. The County's posting guidelines make it clear that
Jefferson County Social Media sites are limited public forums. Each County social media
site will provide a link to the County's posting guidelines here:
https://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/1404/Social-Media-Posting-Guidelines. Comments of the
type mentioned below may be removed.When a comment is removed the Authorized
Agent removing it will explain that it was removed because it did not comply with our
posting guidelines. Removed comments must be archived in accordance with records
retention standards.
• Comments are subject to public disclosure laws and will be screened for the
following:
• Potentially libelous comments.
• Profane, obscene or explicit comments.
• Hateful or mean-spirited comments.
• Personal attacks, insults or threatening language either against the County, others in
the community or those commenting on County social media sites.
• Plagiarized material, or material that violates intellectual property rights.
• Private, personal information published without consent.
• Commercial promotions or spam.
• Comments that are off-topic or that link to material that is off-topic.
• Comments that do not relate to County business.
• Comments that embed images from external sources.
• Political statements, including comments in support of, or opposition to, political
campaigns or ballot measures.
• Repeated, identical or very similar comments.
• Comments that may encourage illegal activity.
• Comments that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public.
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7.3 Privacy Policy.
Jefferson County, as a government entity, conducts public business and its records
generally are available for public review. Nevertheless,Jefferson County is committed, to
the extent allowable by law, to protect and secure your personal information contained in
Jefferson County records.
Third-party social media accounts such as Facebook and YouTube have their own privacy
policies. Please refer to those accounts' privacy policies for more information, as you are no
longer on a Jefferson County website when on third -party social media and you are subject
to the privacy policy and conditions of that website.
7.4 Customer Service.
Departments should have a documented plan (that includes quality control) for managing
customer service on social media accounts.
Authorized agents are responsible for managing customer service inquiries for their
departments. Social media authorized agents should respond to comments or questions as
soon as possible and when appropriate, on the account in which it was originally published.
For example, if the department is answering a question on Twitter it should reply on
Twitter. It is a department's responsibility to decide if and how to address comments on a
case-by-case basis,based on the guidance below.
Social media accounts are an increasingly important avenue for the public to provide
feedback and engage with the government of Jefferson County.
Not all comments/questions need to be responded to. Questions of general interest
may be answered. However, commenters with questions of a personal nature
should be directed to the appropriate Jefferson County contact by providing a phone
number or email address. You may also respond to correct factually incorrect
information provided by a commenter.
Regardless of whether traditional communications are needed (a phone call, for example),
as full a response as possible should be shared with the person on social media as soon as
possible hours during the normal work week.
8. PUBLIC RECORDS ACT AND RECORDS RETENTION
8.1 Records Retention.
Be prepared to treat each comment, post, photo, and list of individuals connected to a social
media account as an open record. Do not assume third-party platforms such as Facebook,
Twitter and WordPress will keep accurate records of your content—they are under no
obligation to do so.
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Jefferson County, WA Social Media Policy
Content published on social media accounts that relates to the conduct of government
actions will be retained and managed by departments in compliance with Jefferson County
records retention and Washington state recordkeeping requirements. Departments should
set all privacy settings on social media accounts to public.
The public may not be aware of the state's public records law, so departments must include
a statement similar to the following on their social media accounts,where applicable:
This is a Jefferson County government account and all content is a public record
and may be subject to public disclosure.
8.2 Public Records Act Applies.
Keep in mind that social media accounts used for county business, including personal
accounts, maybe subject to the Public Records Act (RCW Ch. 42.56), even if the work was
done on personal time and equipment.
8.3 Page Freezer.
Jefferson County uses a cloud-based application called PageFreezer to archive Jefferson
County web content,WordPress blogs, and authorized Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Departments must contact Central Service to have their accounts registered with
PageFreezer prior to activating the account.
To search for archives in PageFreezer,you will need login credentials. Contact Information
Services to receive access to the PageFreezer archives:
PageFreezer does not archive content for all social media accounts. Records
for accounts not included in PageFreezer's service must be managed
separately. Please contact Central Services for more information.
9. SECURITY
Departments must change social media passwords every 90 days and immediately after the
password or social media site accessed using the password has been, or is suspected of
being, compromised. Departments must also change passwords immediately if authorized
agents are removed as administrators or leave county employment.
Do not use automated login options on social media accounts, such as Facebook's "Keep me
logged in" feature.Additionally, if you use a third-party program such as Last Pass to
remember your passwords, make sure to configure the account so that you must log into
Last Pass each time you open a web browser. This is to prevent unauthorized access to
Jefferson County social media accounts should a computer or digital device be
compromised or stolen.
If additional security guidance is needed by a department, contact Information Services.
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10. SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS
10.1 Desktop Applications.
Third-party applications can help make managing social media accounts easier. Hootsuite,
for example, is a desktop application that allows users to manage Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn, and other social media accounts all in one place—this is called a social media
dashboard.
As a best practice, authorized agents should not include professional and personal social
media accounts in the same dashboard. This helps prevent the accidental posting of
personal information from official Jefferson County social media accounts.
If employees use desktop applications such as Hootsuite to manage Jefferson County social
media accounts, they must use their co.jefferson.wa.us email address and a password that's
unique to the application (not the same as your Jefferson County email password).
Employees must use a personal email address to access a separate dashboard for personal
social media use.
10.2 Mobile Apps.
Authorized agents should use different mobile apps for professional and personal use of
social media. If an employee uses Twitter's official mobile app to manage a Jefferson County
account, for example, they should not use the same mobile app to send personal tweets.
This helps prevent the accidental posting of personal information to Jefferson County social
media accounts.
Authorized agents with smartphones should download the Facebook Page Manager mobile
app to post information to Jefferson County accounts. This app is different than the popular
Facebook mobile app that you would use to manage your personal account. The Page
Manager mobile app allows you to post to your Jefferson County Facebook account without
accessing your personal account. This keeps your personal and professional accounts
separate and helps prevent the accidental posting of personal information to Jefferson
County social media accounts.
The Page Manager mobile app is not available on all operating systems. Contact Central
Services for questions about mobile apps and social media use.
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