BY STEFANIE BOWMANN, Eastern Shore Post —
An attorney who held a social media training session for Exmore police officers last month has offered to write official policy on town employee social media use for a maximum cost of $5,000.
“I think $5,000 is a really good insurance policy” considering how much “you’re going to pay a lawyer in court, trying to protect the town, if someone made up the wrong social media post,” said Town Manager Taylor Dukes on Monday, March 3.
Police Chief Angelo DiMartino noted that subsequent training will cost $20 per person, and training could be provided for other town employees such as clerks and public works employees.
In December 2016, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond decided the case of Liverman v. City of Petersburg, in which two police officers sued the police chief after he put them on probation for posting their concerns on Facebook about inexperienced officers who had been promoted and were leading police training sessions.
The two officers allegedly violated a 2013 local policy prohibiting social media activity that “may bring discredit to the Petersburg Bureau of Police and any other City of Petersburg department.”
However, the court found that the policy violated the officers’ First Amendment rights. The court also noted that comments one of the plaintiffs made on social media were “private in nature” and “did not address a matter of public concern.”
An article on the Technology & Marketing Law Blog in December 2016 addressed the court’s findings and stated, “How hard is it to draft an appropriate social media policy for employees? Actually, pretty hard.”
Law blogger Eric Goldman noted that government employers must “navigate the Constitution” when adopting policies on social media use, and he recommended that employment lawyers write those policies.
DiMartino said, “Everybody knows social media has become a problem with people sharing photos, pictures, making comments they shouldn’t make,” but he cautioned that “Petersburg, Virginia, paid out $4.7 million over a social media mess up.”
The Exmore Town Council consented to the expenses for the policy writing and employee training.
Town council
meeting dates
Dukes proposed changing the town council’s monthly meeting date from the first Monday to the second Monday of every month.
He said the change would allow town staff more time to prepare reports on the activities of their respective departments from the previous month.
Dukes explained that it is challenging for staff to complete their reports before the first Monday of the month when the first day of the month is on a weekend.
The motion was made to change the meeting dates, and it passed unanimously.
Dukes told the town council to allow time for public hearings to be held and that the first meeting on the second Monday of the month likely will not occur until July.
