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Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority approves Facebook page, board directs no on-post comments
Summary
The Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority voted to establish a Facebook account for one-way information with comments turned off on posts where possible and a point of contact provided for follow-up.
The Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority voted to establish a Facebook page and directed that its posts be configured as a one-way information channel with comments turned off where possible and a clear contact for follow-up.
Board members debated risks and benefits for roughly an hour, focusing on misinformation, moderation practices, legal exposure and whether a social-media policy should be adopted before launching a page. Vice Chair Peters, Director John Vallejo and other board members and members of the public with experience on the Authority’s Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) spoke during discussion.
The page will be created and managed by the Authority’s communications contractor Westbound Communications together with Authority staff (General Manager Carroll and April, staff), with Westbound expected to monitor activity and use a prepared bank of standard responses directing technical questions to Authority staff or to the Authority’s website resources. Westbound’s representative Chris Perez said a typical cadence for active pages is about one post per week and that staff would rely on prepared responses and links to detailed materials on the Authority website to handle technical queries rather than attempt to answer complex technical questions directly on Facebook.
Board members pressed several points during discussion: Director Vallejo argued the Authority should limit the page to one-way posts with a contact for detailed technical follow-up and said he preferred comment functionality disabled; Vice Chair Peters and Chairman Heyman said Facebook reaches sections of the public who rely on social media for information and supported a trial. Members of the PAC and several public commenters urged caution and recommended trying the updated website and newsletter approaches first, or ensuring a clear moderation policy before launching an interactive page.
After debate, Director John Vallejo moved to establish an Authority Facebook account that would not allow comments on posts and would instead direct readers to a specific point of contact for questions. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously with the following recorded votes: Chairman Heyman — Aye; Vice Chair Peters — Aye; Director St. Amond — Yes; Director Ettinger — Aye; Director Vallejo — Aye. The board directed staff to proceed with the page configured to avoid back-and-forth comment threads where possible and to return to the board if policy changes are needed.
The board and staff said the new site will link to a redesigned Authority website with FAQs and a newsroom/newsletter feed; April (staff) said the website will also host a subscription list for interested parties. Westbound and staff said they will prepare a moderation approach and a bank of standard responses and will coordinate with the PAC’s prior recommendations on communications.
The action means the Authority will now publish official announcements on Facebook as an additional distribution channel while attempting to limit public comment on those posts and directing technical follow-up to staff contact points or the Authority website.
