Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutBozeman Online City Hall Policy_11-27-13Bozeman Online City Hall Use Policy Purpose/Applicability of this Policy This policy establishes guidelines for the use of a suite of internet-based public engagement services provided by Peak Democracy Inc. The customized name for this suite is Bozeman Online City Hall. This policy is intended to supplement the City’s current Information Technology Use Policy and the City’s Social Media Use Policy. This policy applies when a city employee fulfills any of the administrative duties related to the Bozeman Online City Hall site including posting topics, replying to posts and removing posts. Only authorized employees approved by the City Manager shall have administrative rights on the Bozeman Online City Hall site. This policy is intended to guide authorized employees in the proper use of this site to ensure consistency across departments, compliance with State open meeting laws, records retention laws and the city’s internal policies. Questions about this policy should be directed to the City Manager or the Clerk’s Office. At this time, the only authorized administrators shall be in the City Clerk’s Office. Objective of Bozeman Online City Hall The City Charter preamble affirms the values of representative democracy and citizen participation. Our core values call out teamwork - respecting others, welcoming citizen involvement and working together to achieve the best result. When the Commission and staff worked together to establish leadership team expectations and obligations, understanding the value of citizen trust of our local government was stated as an important expectation. This Peak Democracy suite helps build trust by allowing citizens to become more informed, involved and engaged in city decision-making. This suite also enables the city to gather valuable information from the community that can be used in a variety of ways. The online format of this tool recognizes residents desire to communicate and participate using online and social media formats. Content Posting topics on the Bozeman Online City Hall site is the main way this tool is used to garner public involvement and comments. It is vital that topics and related questions are relevant, clearly written and presented in an honest and fair manner. Topics can be written by any Director (or designee) or the City Clerk’s office but prior to posting must be approved by the City Manager. Relevant background documentation shall be provided with maps, pictures and video utilized whenever possible. Thought will go into the type of information the city is seeking, the possible resources that may be available to put towards the question or solution and who will be provided the information gleaned (content for Who is Listening). A topic submittal form shall be completed and turned into the Deputy City Clerk for review and presentation to the City Manager for approval. Care shall be taken throughout the process to add notices of any upcoming open meetings on the topic or other pertinent alerts. When timing is appropriate or the topic is closed for comment, an outcome statement will be posted summarizing the decisions made or actions taken. Updates on progress should also be posted throughout the process. Until further notice, the actual administrative management of the software (uploading, follow up, decisions, charette’s to be used, etc.) shall be handled through the City Clerk’s office. The originating Director (or designee) will work with the Clerk’s office regarding content, responses and follow up. Use of Acceptable Use Policy / Civility Guideline and Monitoring Posts A customized Acceptable Use Policy/Civility Guideline has been prominently posted on the Bozeman Online City Hall site. The current social media Acceptable Use Policy was utilized and revised slightly to indicate the tasks that Peak Democracy fulfills. Peak Democracy includes a monitoring service to ensure each comment made by online users complies with the city’s Acceptable Use Policy / Guidelines for Civility. If Peak Democracy believes a comment may not meet our civility guidelines, the comment is moved off the forum and into a ‘Pending Statements’ page and the Deputy City Clerk will be notified via e-mail to decide whether the statement violates our guidelines or not. The City Attorney will be the final say whether a violation has occurred. It is the Deputy City Clerk’s responsibility to monitor the ‘Pending Statements’ page and forward any possible violations that need resolution to the City Attorney. Further resolution will be defined by the City Attorney, but all monitoring and follow up will be completed by the City Clerk’s Office. Acceptable Use Policy / Civility Guidelines Communicating with the City through social media enables you to contact the City in a direct and meaningful way. If you wish to comment or post material on this site you do so with the understanding that you agree to this policy and its standards of use as an initial and ongoing condition of your use. When engaging with the City of Bozeman through this social media site, you agree to the following civility guidelines: Every comment or posting you make is a public record and may be disseminated, reproduced, or copied by the City or any other person without any further action by the poster or without notice by the City of such. You agree you have no reasonable expectation of privacy in anything you post to this site. Comments must be related to the posted topic. This site is not meant for comments that do not directly relate to the purpose or topic of the site or for service complaints. For general comments or communications concerning a department or division, please contact the department or division directly by phone, email or in person. Comments posted to these sites are monitored by Peak Democracy and City employees and, while comments will not be edited by the City, a comment (or an appropriate portion thereof) may be removed if it violates any part of this policy. When you post you are subject to the policies, rules, and regulations (i.e. the Terms of Service (TOS)) of the host site (Peak Democracy). Information (photos, videos, etc.) you share with or post to this site is also subject to the TOS of the host site and may be used by the owners of the host site for their own purposes. For more information, consult the host website's TOS. Comments containing any of the following forms of content shall not be allowed and may be removed by the City without notice to you: Comments promoting or opposing any person campaigning for election to a political office or ballot issues; Promotion or advertisement of a business or commercial enterprise or solicitation of commerce; The use of profane, obscene, threatening or harassing language; Personal attacks of any kind; Comments that promotes, fosters, or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, age, marital status, national origin, or actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability as well as any other category protected by federal, state, or local law; Sexual content or links to sexual content; Comments that violate the protected privacy interests of any person; Comments advocating illegal activity; Content that violates a legal ownership interest of any other party; and Information that may compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems. Users are welcome to submit or post content, including photographs and videos, to this site where the site allows users to post content, the content meets the standards articulated in this Acceptable Use Policy/Civility Guidelines and pertains to the topic posted. Users may only post their own, original content. Reproduced or borrowed content that reasonably appears to violate third party rights will be removed. This policy is subject to amendment or modification at any time. Records Retention Peak Democracy retains all the comments and public input from participants for the appropriate record retention period. However, the city will not rely on Peak Democracy’s storage of records. Instead, when a new topic is posted, a new hard copy file will be created as well as an online folder kept in the Laserfiche repository in the ‘Correspondence’ folder under ‘Bozeman Online City Hall’. Thus, all documents related to the topic will be stored in hard copy and in the electronic repository. When the topic is closed or at the end of every month, the Deputy City Clerk will print a forum content report in PDF to place in the hard copy file and also place an electronic copy of the report in the Laserfiche repository folder. At the close of the topic, the hard copy file will be given to the clerk’s office for storage until the record retention has been met. The City Clerk’s office will ensure all documents are also complete in the Laserfiche repository.