Council discusses tightening social-media guidance for city employees, stops short of new policy

Council members discussed whether to expand the city’s social-media guidance—currently applied to city pages and to council members—to cover employees’ personal social-media activity.
Councilman Thomas said the employee manual addresses only city-managed social accounts and not employees’ personal posts; he asked whether rules like those the council adopted for members should apply to staff. Members raised concerns about inappropriate posts by employees and the reputational impact on the city.
City legal and management staff cautioned that regulating employees’ off-duty, personal speech can raise constitutional issues and that enforcement is delicate. Staff suggested the city already requires professional conduct on official city accounts and that any change to employee expectations should be drafted carefully to avoid violating employees’ free-speech protections. The city manager and staff said that if council wants changes, they should propose concrete policy language for council consideration; no specific draft was presented at the work session.
Council members did not adopt a new policy during the session; they asked staff to consider whether draft language addressing employee social-media behavior on city accounts and during work hours could be presented for a future meeting.