Eastpointe council adopts new social media policy after extended review and edits

The Eastpointe City Council on Feb. 18 adopted a new social media policy intended to standardize the city’s official accounts, set expectations for employee and public use, and improve record retention and transparency.

The policy, developed by an ad hoc committee that met repeatedly over several months, was adopted by a 4-1 roll-call vote. Council member Baker voted against adoption, citing concerns about labor implications and the creation of a new part-time position mentioned in the committee’s supporting memo.

The committee’s resident contributors, Chelsea and Alyssa Deibalt, presented the draft and supporting documents to the council. Chelsea described the policy’s goals and scope: “We knew the policy would be complete when we fulfill the following goals. … We have a policy that is empowering and motivating for all the people who will reference it and a policy that protects the users and the city.” The committee recommended two administrative attachments — an action-plan form and a quarterly audit template — and asked council to adopt the policy itself and “receive and file” the additional documents for administration to use.

Council members and city staff spent more than 45 minutes on detailed questions about enforcement, labor protections, records retention and how accounts should be administratively managed. Council member Baker said he supported the idea of a policy but was uncomfortable with some enforcement language and with recommending creation of a part-time position without more detail: “I just don't believe that we as a council can recommend that because there are procedures in place and there are some civil service matters that we basically have no governance over.”

City manager Mariah Walton, community engagement staff and the city attorney said they had reviewed the draft and discussed it with the city’s labor representative. City attorney Richard Albright told the council he had forwarded the policy to the city’s labor counsel for review and had not received objections. Mariah Walton and staff described practical steps needed to bring existing department pages into compliance, saying many city pages were set up as personal-linked accounts and would need to be converted to business/organization accounts so access can be managed across staff transitions.

The adopted policy includes standards for acceptable content, moderation of user comments, and a records-retention approach that requires preserving deleted posts and comments only when necessary for FOIA compliance. Council and staff also discussed the policy’s prohibition on solicitation and commercial promotions in user comments; staff clarified that the restriction is aimed at spam and paid promotions, not responsible, city-led economic development posts.

The council also voted 4-1 to receive and file the committee’s supplemental materials — the social media action plan, a quarterly audit form and recommended implementation steps — while making clear those supporting documents can be changed administratively.

Council members said they expect to review the policy on a regular cadence and to adapt it as needed. Mayor Kleinfeld and others praised the committee’s work and encouraged staff to proceed with the conversion of accounts and the administrative steps needed to implement the policy.

The council set the policy’s effective date as Feb. 18, 2025; the committee’s supporting documents were recorded as received by the city for administrative follow-up.