The City of Pipestone intends to use social media websites as additional communication channels to assist in promotion of its programs, events, and services, and to represent itself appropriately and consistently on the Internet. Social media technology allows news and
information to be shared quickly and is a forum to facilitate public discussion. The goals of the City of Pipestone sponsored social networking sites are:
•To increase the public’s knowledge of the City of Pipestone and the services it provides.
•To maintain open, professional, and responsive communication with members of the public and the news media.
•To promote and increase brand awareness related to economic development and local government service delivery.
•To promote community engagement through transparency and the solicitation of feedback.
•To provide publicly posted information that is professional and reflects positively on the City of Pipestone employees, volunteers, and services.
•To disseminate accurate, time-sensitive information as quickly as possible (i.e., emergency information)
•To supplement information from other City communication sources.
•To promote the value and importance of local government, the City’s governing officials, and civic leaders (volunteer board/commission members). Comments and Submissions
To maintain a welcoming and professional environment, private submissions to the City of Pipestone's page will not be allowed. The public can however send private messages to communicate and ask questions pertaining to city operations. In addition, commenting on City posts will be turned off except for during specific times where the city is seeking to obtain feedback, data, or working to facilitate two-way communication, and broaden the ways residents may connect with the city. Please note that comments expressed on the City’s social networking sites do not reflect the opinions or positions of the City of Pipestone, its employees, or its elected officials. The City of Pipestone reserves the right to remove any submissions containing:
(i) Profane or vulgar language or content
(ii) Personal attacks, potentially libelous comments, harassments, or threats of any kind
(iii) Comments that promote, foster, or perpetuate discrimination on any basis or class protected by state or federal law
(iv) Spam or links to other sites
(v) Promotion or endorsement of commercial services, products, or entities
(vi) Content that is not topically related
(vii) Conduct or advocacy of illegal activity
(viii) Promotion of particular services, products, or political organizations or candidates
(ix) Support for or against any political campaign or ballot measures
(x) Copyrights or trademark infringement or other similar legal violations
(xi) Private or personal information published without consent
The City reserves the right to restrict or remove any content deemed in violation of this social media policy or any applicable law. The City may ban future posts from users who repeatedly violate our comment policy, as well as remove comments at any time, whether or not they violate the comment policy. All removed comments will be saved in a “removed comments” folder for data practices purposes with a statement explaining the violation. If you have questions regarding this policy, please contact the site administrator at [email protected] or call the City Administrator directly at 507-825-3324. Accuracy and Timeliness
The City of Pipestone will make every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information provided on its social media pages. However, several factors that are beyond the City's control (including unauthorized modification of electronic data, transmission errors, browser incompatibilities, information that has been cached on the local computer or storage device, or other aspects of electronic communication in an evolving and time---sensitive environment) can affect the quality of the information displayed on the site. For that reason, the city does not guarantee the accuracy of the information provided on its social media page and is not liable for reliance on this information. The social media pages are intended to share information to a wide number of people quickly, not as an in-depth or complete source of information, but as an evolving supplement to the City of Pipestone's website (https://www.progressivepipestone.com), press releases, and in-person communications. Data Practices Applicability
Any content maintained in a social media format that is related to City business, including a list of subscribers and posted communication, is a public record. The department maintaining the site is responsible for responding completely and accurately to any public records request for public records on social media. Content related to City business shall be maintained in an accessible format and so that it can be produced in response to a request. Any content removed based on this policy must be retained, including the time, date, and identity of the poster when available, as well as the City’s reason for removing the content. Content posted to social media sites will be transitory in nature, in order to adhere to the City’s records retention policy.
