INNISFAIL – Members of Innisfail council may soon be accountable for their use of social media.
Following a request by mayor Jean Barclay to administration at the regular council meeting on Jan. 8, social media use could soon by added to the Council Code of Conduct Bylaw.
“We've spoke before about adding something around social media into our code of conduct,” Barclay said at the meeting. “I'm not sure what that looks like or sounds like but I'm sure there's lots of municipalities that have that.
“I think it’s wise to have some protection for everybody,” the mayor added. “My goal was to show everybody how a social media page that’s councillor instead of personal, where you're not mixing and mingling the two together. You're keeping that clarity.”
Barclay asked Todd Becker, chief administrative officer for the Town of Innisfail, whether a motion would be appropriate to get the ball rolling for staff to begin researching into the issue.
Becker said he would like some “context” into the mayor’s request that could lead into a motion to provide staff direction.
Barclay replied there is nothing currently in the bylaw that refers to social media, adding there have been “some issues” with municipal elected officials using social media and “how it’s used.
“I just want to make sure that it's in our code of conduct and we know where we're at and what the parameters are around that,” said Barclay, adding she and councillors Janice Wing and Jason Heistad attended an Alberta Municipalities (AM) breakout session last fall on social media. “The lawyer who was facilitating that session spoke quite a bit about ensuring we have a social media clause in our code of conduct bylaw.
“Let's face it, that's where people are getting their news and their information from, and it is all there. We just want to make sure that it is clear for the protection of council.”
Heistad told council members the AM session was well worthwhile and gave his support for a motion to have another look and discussion on council members’ social media usage.
“There's an opportunity for us, not only as councillors to refresh on it but to spend some time on the discussion on social media, as well on how we conduct ourselves. I see that as very important because so much of it is out there,” said Heistad.
Council then unanimously passed a motion to direct administration to start research into adding a social media component to the Council Code of Conduct Bylaw.
“They (administration) will do some research into what other communities have done and bring back some verbiage, whether it's a new clause or whether it's something that's inserted into verbiage that's already there. I don't know,” said Barclay. “But like I said, I really don't know what it looks like or what it sounds like. But I would like us to look into that and do some research and bring it back.”
