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City staff outline Utah GDPA obligations and draft social‑media rules for elected officials
Summary
A city consultant walked the council through the state Government Data Privacy Act requirements and proposed social‑media moderation and records policies for elected officials; staff will prepare a resolution, designate officers and post a privacy notice on the city website before the legislative deadline.
Mary Dean Alexander, a communications member working with the city, briefed the council on Utah’s Government Data Privacy Act and social media guidelines for elected officials.
Alexander told the council that the state’s Office of Data Privacy provides templates and a December 31 reporting requirement to show a privacy program has been initiated. She recommended the city designate a chief administrative officer and records officers, provide staff training, post a clear privacy notice on the city website, and file a short annual privacy program report. She said Magna has already posted a website privacy notice and offered to help draft a council resolution formalizing roles and responsibilities.
On social media, Alexander advised elected officials to post official meeting notices, emergency alerts and factual updates from the city account, avoid campaign endorsements on government pages, and treat posts and comments as public records under GRAMA. She recommended a moderation policy that permits removal only for content that violates law or an adopted policy (hate speech, threats, spam) and said staff will draft a moderation policy and implementation steps for council review.
Council asked staff to work together and return a draft in November so the city can meet state timelines.
Action: staff agreed to prepare a draft resolution and social media moderation policy for council consideration.
