The City of Hillsboro, Kansas uses social media to engage and inform residents, visitors and stakeholders as a channel of communication, and to promote city services and the community. The city’s website, cityofhillsboro.net, serves as the primary source for information and internet presence.
This policy is to ensure an authorized and consistent message on City of Hillsboro social media channels.
We use social media for organizational announcements, promoting Hillsboro businesses, community event information, visitor information, photos, job opportunities, municipal related news, information and resources for Hillsboro residents.
We do not post or share political endorsements, crude, rude, offensive or derogatory statements.
Ownership
All website and social media systems and resources owned or controlled by the City and all messages, text, graphics, images, and electronic files and other information transmitted by, received through or stored in these systems and resources are the property of the City.
Community Standards
Any City of Hillsboro social media site shall be considered a limited public forum, and public expression must meet certain minimum levels of discourse. The City of Hillsboro reserves the right to temporarily or permanently suspend access to any page or social media platform at any time. Articles, posts and comments on the City’s social media site shall not contain any of the following forms of content, which shall be removed:
• Profane language or content
• Content that promotes, fosters, or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, age, ancestry, religion, gender, national origin, physical or mental disability
• Sexual content or links to sexual content
• City personnel matters
• Conduct or encouragement of illegal activity
• Information that may compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems or facilities
• Content that violates a legal ownership interest of any other party
• Threats or defamatory statements
• Links to any external site
• Multiple successive off-topic posts by a single user or repetitive posts copied and pasted by multiple users, or Spam
• Endorsement of political candidates, causes or groups, except for endorsement approved by City management of events, services or causes that have explicit, general City sponsorship
The City reserves the right to remove content that is deemed in violation of this policy, applicable law, or the City’s employee handbook. Any participant on a City Social Media Page that repeatedly violates the commenting guidelines as set forth in this policy may be permanently removed from the City’s social media page(s). The City of Hillsboro reserves the right to temporarily or permanently suspend access to any Page at any time.
Employee Use
Social networking is meant to be social, so having employees interact with our posts can enhance information sharing, morale, and education throughout the organization and our service area. The City encourages employees to responsibly utilize social media as the powerful tool it can be.
City of Hillsboro employees are invited to follow and engage with the city’s social media through their own personal accounts. Personal social media accounts of City of Hillsboro employees should not be presented as official voices or opinions of the City. Employees may use personal social media during work in a reasonable, limited way provided that this privilege does not interfere with his or her job duties.
City of Hillsboro social media accounts are monitored and the responsibility of the City Administrator, City Clerk, Police Chief and any of their designees. Employees are prohibited from using official city accounts for personal use.
No employee of the City of Hillsboro shall be punished for expressions, or litigation, made as a private citizen regarding matters of public concern, unless those expressions substantially disrupts the efficient and effective delivery of public services by the City.
No employee of the City of Hillsboro shall be punished for their political beliefs or associations. However employees are subject to disciplinary action if their associations or public statements disrupt, limits or prevents the effective performance of their duties as an employee of the City.
Any employee who accesses their personal account from city owned, city leased or city provided technology has no right to privacy in any information that is created, stored, transmitted, shared or viewed.
The city may review all internet activity and websites that are accessed. Anyone found to have violated this policy may be subject to disciplinary action.
The City of Hillsboro recognizes that these guidelines will continually evolve as new technologies and social networking tools emerge. The City of Hillsboro reserves the right to change the communication policy at any time to reflect the current technology and marketing trends.