Chatham-Kent councillors now have social media guidelines to follow, with a few slight changes made to the original recommendations.
On Monday night, councillors accepted the recommendations laid out in the staff report. However, Councillor Melissa Harrigan first put forward a successful motion to remove the "election years" guideline as well as the point that failure to follow the guidelines could lead to a finding that a council member has contravened the Code of Conduct.
As a councillor that frequently uses social media, Harrigan said she appreciated the work that went into creating the guidelines but felt the two items weren't as clear as they could be.
"By making these edits, what I believe is there is just a bit more clarity to remind councillors that in all of the work we do, and whenever we really put pen to paper, we do have to abide by legislation and that is just slightly different from best practice guidelines," she explained.
Chatham-Kent councillors are getting some guidance on how to conduct themselves on social media.
A staff report is coming to council on Monday night titled 'Social Media Guidelines for Council Members.'
In October 2020, council and senior municipal staff held a workshop alongside Chatham-Kent Integrity Commissioner Mary Ellen Bench where the Code of Conduct for council members was reviewed. According to the report going to council Monday, Bench recommended that the municipality establish social media guidelines for council members.
"The purpose of these guidelines is to ensure the appropriate use and management of social media on behalf of the Municipality of Chatham-Kent elected officials," stated the report. "The Municipality of Chatham-Kent’s Codes of Conduct, corporate values and policies are the foundation to maintain and protect integrity and reputations of individuals and the municipality."
Ward 2 Councillor Trevor Thompson often uses social media to engage with residents and admits there have been some instances where social media has caused him some trouble along the way.
He said he's ultimately in favour of Bench's recommendations.
"I think it's good to have a set of guidelines for residents and councillors to kind of follow along to," he said.
The following guidelines are being proposed:
- Maintain confidentiality - Do not post information discussed in closed session or anything that you would not present in a public forum.
- Maintain privacy - Do not post private or confidential information about fellow councillors, employees or constituents. Do not discuss situations involving named, pictured or otherwise identifiable individuals without their permission.
- Be authentic - Write as an extension of your own voice. When you re-post something written by someone else, first ensure you have the proper permissions to do so.
- Provide information when it counts - Should you decide to engage in social media, know that monitoring and responding in a timely way are crucial.
- When in doubt, do not post - If in doubt, consider conferring with administration for information or confirmation of facts prior to posting or re-posting.
- Respect staff - Members should not use social media to engage in criticism of municipal staff.
- Respect each other and the public - Members must never use social media as a platform to treat members of the public, one another, or staff without respect. Members should not engage in or encourage bullying of any other social media users.
- Once information is published online, it becomes part of a permanent record - It is a good practice to provide a link to an online space where your message can be expressed completely and accurately if it cannot fit within a character-restricted space.
- If you start it, commit to it - Be dynamic: update news feeds, post developments, upload new pictures.
- Corporate Social Media Policy - Councillors should also review the Chatham-Kent Corporate Social Media Policy as it contains valuable information pertaining to expectation for the use of social media forums.
- Election years - Effective the beginning of the Nomination Period, all links, likes/follows, and sharing of content with a “councillor” site shall be stopped and removed until the Inaugural Meeting of the newly elected Council is complete.
Thompson said he will continue to conduct himself online as he has throughout his past two terms and added that in the role, you learn several lessons along the way when it comes to navigating the world of social media as an elected official.
"When I look at the guidelines I don't think there's anything that's going to give me pause, per se. I think if you're a councillor or anybody you should already be thinking about what you're putting online," said Thompson. "I think in the past three years I've already been faced with that outside of the guidelines where I've had to consider what I'm going to post or weigh in on. I don't think every instance needs my viewpoint or every issue needs me to have a strong opinion on."
There is also a twelfth point that notes failing to follow any of the guidelines could lead to a finding that a council member has contravened the Code of Conduct. Councillors are instructed to seek advice from the integrity commission in regards to any specific situations that arise.
"Social media, it's a double-edged sword," said Thompson. "I think if there were more negatives than positives, I wouldn't use it. I think by and large, it is a positive way to engage in feedback."