I. PURPOSE

The Social Media Policy establishes guidelines for the use of social media sites by the City of Duarte (“City”) as a means to disseminate information regarding the City’s mission, meetings, activities, events and current issues to members of the general public.

The City of Duarte’s intended use of City social media sites is to relate solely to matters of agency business and does not intend to create general public forum.

II. DEFINITIONS

A. “Social media sites” means, but not exclusive to, websites and internet based applications where user created content exists electronically. The user created content is accessible, expandable and upgradable through and on the Internet. Examples of social media sites include but are not limited to: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

B. “City social media” means a page, location or other means for collection of digital information on a social media platform over which the City controls City staff generated postings, except for advertisements or hyperlinks by the social media site’s owners, vendors or partners.

C. “City post” or “City postings” mean information, articles, pictures, videos or any other form of communication posted by City staff on a City social media page.

D. “Post” or “postings” mean information, articles, pictures, videos or any other form of communication posted by an agency or user on a City social media page.

III. POLICY

The City’s website www.accessduarte.com shall remain the City’s primary source for online communication. To the extent possible, a link to the City’s Website shall be included on all City social media pages. City social media pages may supplement, but shall not replace, the City’s legally required notices. To the extent possible, City social media pages shall link back to the City Website for forms, documents, online services and other information necessary to conduct business with and/or in the City of Duarte.

RALPH M. BROWN ACT

Use of the City social media sites by officials, officers and/or employees of the City shall be in compliance with all applicable laws including the Ralph M. Brown Act (“Brown Act”). Members of the City Council, Commissions and standing committees shall be advised of the potential implications, under the Brown Act, of choosing to “like,” “share,” retweet or otherwise respond to any published postings on City social media sites, or using the City social media sites to blog or engage in serial meetings, or otherwise discuss, deliberate, or express opinion on any issue(s) within the subject matter jurisdiction of the City.

TERMINATION OF SITE

The City reserves the right to terminate any City social media site at any time without notice.

SOCIAL MEDIA SITE PROVIDERS

City social media sites are subject to the usage rules and regulations required by the site provider including privacy policies. The City does not control the privacy and use policies of social media sites, including City social media sites. Users of social media sites are subject to the terms and conditions they have agreed to when registering to use social media sites. Social media site providers may, from time to time, modify their terms, conditions and usage policies with little to no notification.

PUBLIC RECORDS ACT

The City’ Social Media Policy shall be displayed to users or made available by hyperlink on the City's website.

City social media sites are subject to the California Public Records Act, Records Retention Policy of the City and the State of California as they may be amended from time to time. Any content maintained in a social media format that is related to City business, including a list of subscribers, posted communication, and communication submitted for posting, and that is otherwise retained by the City in accordance with applicable laws and policies, may be a public record subject to disclosure.

CONTENT MANAGEMENT

A. City social media sites shall be managed and moderated by the Public Information Officer (“PIO”), person or designee(s) designated by the Public Information Officer. Establishment of City social media sites require approval of the PIO. Postings, which ask a question or is a request for information generated by an agency or users will be directed to the relevant department head and the individual will respond to the post. The department head will communicate with the City Manager’s office on the status of the post.

B. The PIO of City social media sites shall create profiles using a City owned email address only.

C. All comments or postings to the City’s social media platforms will be monitored. A comment or post by a member of the public on any City social media page is the opinion of the commenter or poster only and does not imply endorsement of or agreement. The City reserves the right, to the extent permitted by law, to remove comments or content including those that:

1. Contain profane language;

2. Contain pornography;

3. Promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination of protected classes;

4. Are sexually harassing;

5. Are solicitations for commerce or advertisements including promotion or endorsement, unless already part of a City-sponsored or City co-sponsored event;

6. Promote or endorse political groups or individuals;

7. Conduct or encourage illegal activity;

8. Encourage injury to the public, public officials or public facilities;

9. Defame any person, group or organization;

10. Violate a legal ownership interest of any party, such as trademark or copyright infringement;

11. Contain false statements of fact;

12. Includes threats of violence;

13. Discloses information otherwise protected from disclosure of law;

14. Violates the Brown Act.

D. Any content removed based on items (c)1-14 above must be retained, including time, date and identity of the user/poster when available, in accordance with the agency’s policy on the retention of such information.

E. The City reserves the right to respond to any posting on City social media sites.

F. The City reserves the right to ban users from participating in City social media sites based on repeated postings that are eligible for removal in accordance to items (c) 1-14 above.

G. The city may post links to external sites which are government sites, City-related sites or sites with specific ties to the City.

H. The City shall control posting rights to City social media services and only allow comment on City initiated postings and not allow direct posting by outside entities on City social media services.

I. Content generated by agencies or users whether favorable or unfavorable, shall be allowed to remain provided it is relevant to the conversation topic and is not in violations of items 1-14 above in section C. All comments, whether favorable or unfavorable, will be removed after a 1 week period.

J. All City of Duarte social media pages shall clearly indicate that the site(s) is maintained by the City and shall prominently display City contact information. Branding the City’s social media pages as the “official page of the City of Duarte” is required. All City-maintained social media pages shall include the City logo.

K. This policy may be revised at any time by or upon approval by the City Manager. 

This Privacy Notice discloses the City of Duarte’s privacy practices and how we collect and use the information you supply when you interact with the City website. By accessing and using the website, you acknowledge the City of Duarte Privacy Notice and accept the policies and practices described in this document.

The City of Duarte collects no personal information about you without your knowledge when you visit this site, although you may choose to provide this information to us in specific instances. However, we do collect and store certain information automatically.

INFORMATION COLLECTED AND STORED AUTOMATICALLY

When you browse, read pages, or download information in the AccessDuarte.com domain, certain technical information about your visit is automatically gathered and stored. This information does not identify who you are. The information collected and stored about your visit includes:

• The Internet Protocol (IP) address of the domain from which you access the Internet, whether yours individually or provided as a proxy by your Internet Service Provider (ISP)

• The type of browser and operating system used to access our site

• The date and time you access our site

• Pages and files you viewed and downloaded

• The Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our site.

The summary statistics are used to help make our site more useful to visitors, such as assessing what information is of most and least interest to visitors, and for other purposes such as determining the site's technical design specifications and identifying system performance or problem areas.

This information is not shared with anyone beyond the support staff for this website and other appropriate City staff, except when required by computer security, law enforcement investigation or other authorized legal purpose, and is customarily used only as a source of anonymous statistical information. 

COOKIES

Website in the AccessDuarte.com domain uses persistent cookies only to store website display related user preferences (e.g. font size, display tooltips, etc.), and the cookies do not collect any personal information.

IF YOU SEND US PERSONAL INFORMATION

If you choose to provide the City with personal information - such as filling out a form and submitting it to us through the website - that information will be used only to complete the activity for which it was provided, whether it is a one-time event or a recurring event, such as providing a subscription service. This information may be used for the technical support of the website and its computer system, or to enhance, evaluate, or otherwise review the website or service. The information may also be used to contact an individual in response to a request for information.

You may choose to provide us with personal information, as in an e-mail message containing your comments or questions. We use this information to improve our service to you or to respond to your request. There are times when your message is forwarded, as e-mail, to other employees who may be better able to help you.

Personal information, collected as noted herein, is retained to meet the needs of the stated purpose and is then discarded in accordance with the City’s Records Retention Policy.

The City of Duarte does NOT collect information for commercial marketing. Personal information is shared only with employees of the City of Duarte involved in processing data for the completion of the stated purpose, entities for which the City is acting as an agent, and/or entities acting as the City's agent (an agent in this instance is defined as a third party that processes data only for the completion of the stated purpose), except for authorized law enforcement investigations, or as otherwise required by federal or State law, including but not limited to, the California Public Records Act.

Although we take reasonable measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that personally identifiable information that we collect will never be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this privacy policy.

Messages transmitted via email are not secure and any information transmitted to this site via email should be assumed to not be confidential. 

LINKS TO OTHER SITES

The City of Duarte website contains links to other sites whose information practices may be different from ours. Please read the other sites' privacy notices and note that we have no control over information that is submitted to, or collected by, these third parties.

DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY

Neither the City of Duarte, nor any of its programs, employees, agents or individual elected officials, shall be held liable for any improper or incorrect use of the information described and/or contained in the City website and the City assumes no responsibility for anyone's use of the information. In no event shall the City website, or its programs, employees, agents or individual elected officials be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential damages (including, but not limited to, procurement or substitute goods or services; loss of use, data, or profits; or business interruption) however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict liability, or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of this system, even if advised of the possibility of such damage. This disclaimer of liability applies to any damages or injury, including but not limited to those caused by any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communication line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, alteration of, or use of record, whether for breach of contract, tortious behavior, negligence or under any other cause of action.

Communication made with the City of Duarte through this website shall not constitute public comment or legal notice to the City or any of its officers, employees, agents or representatives with respect to any past, existing, or potential claim or cause of action regarding the City or any of its agents, officers, employees, agents or representatives, where notice to City is required by laws, rules or regulations. Please be advised that such communications may be subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND ACCURACY OF DATA

Although the data found on the City website have been produced and processed from sources believed to be reliable, no warranty, express or implied, is made regarding accuracy, adequacy, completeness, legality, reliability or usefulness of any information. This disclaimer applies to both isolated and aggregate uses of the information. THE CITY OF DUARTE PROVIDES THIS INFORMATION ON AN "AS IS" BASIS. ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, FREEDOM FROM CONTAMINATION BY COMPUTER VIRUSES AND NON-INFRINGEMENT OF PROPRIETARY RIGHTS ARE DISCLAIMED. Changes may be periodically made to the information herein; these changes may or may not be incorporated in any new versions of the City website. If a user has obtained information from any of the City web pages via a source other than the City website, be aware that electronic data can be altered subsequent to original distribution. Data can also quickly become out of date. It is recommended that careful attention be paid to the contents of any data associated with a file, and that the originator of the data or information be contacted with any questions regarding appropriate use.

Use of this website constitutes acceptance of this waiver of liability and warranties.

Please Tune To Spectrum Channel 3 To View The Duarte PEG Channel 

I. PURPOSE OF THE CITY OF DUARTE'S PEG CHANNEL

The City of Duarte’s ( “City” or “Duarte”) PEG channel is a limited public forum, the use of which is limited to the purposes and policies expressly permitted in this PEG Channel Usage Policy (“PEG Policy”). The Purpose of the Duarte PEG channel is to:

• Provide non-commercial governmental programming, as defined in Section II.

• Provide a convenient and information-rich resource for residents, visitors, businesses, non-profit organizations, other public agencies, and schools to access their city government.

• Act as a source of information during local emergencies.

Per Assembly Bill 2987, the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act of 2006 (DIVCA), the City may designate any combination of the PEG channel allowances; it does not have to offer all three components–Public, Education, Government.

II. GOVERNMENTAL PROGRAMMING, ACCESS ELIGIBILITY & VERIFICATION

The City’s PEG channel is a government access channel. Access eligibility is open to the City, non-profit organizations that have current partnerships with the City (e.g., co-sponsorships, contracts, memoranda of understanding), Duarte Unified School District, California School of the Arts - San Gabriel Valley, and public agencies that serve Duarte residents (collectively, “producers,” or individually as “producer”). Individuals, commercial, for-profit organizations, and other organizations not expressly permitted access eligibility herein are not eligible to become a producer. Individuals such as employees, contractors, and volunteers affiliated with producers but are not representing a producer or are not authorized to provide programming on behalf of a producer are producers themselves. The City reserves the right to obtain verification regarding whether the submission of any programming for the Duarte PEG channel was duly authorized by the producer.

III.MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES

A. RESOURCES
Air time on the access channel is free of charge.

This policy documents resources, guidelines, and other informational materials that detail the current process for scheduling channel time. The City is responsible for the equitable apportionment of this finite resource to ensure availability for all eligible producers. It may determine necessary limitations such as program length, the number of programs scheduled at one time; acceptable formats for delivery of programs; the process for delivery; and other related procedures and requirements.

B. OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES
Producers must complete and submit a Program Submittal Request Form on the City website. At this time, producers may request specific showing times, though there is no guarantee of preferred placement times or sequences. Staff will match space with requested times whenever possible. 

Upon receiving requests for material to be broadcast, the City will determine if the proposed material is consistent with this policy. If the City concludes that the proposed material violates this policy, the decision may be appealed to the City Manager. The City reserves the right to refuse any request for PEG channel programming that is in violation of the PEG Policy or any local, state, or federal law.

The curation of program content, including order, sequencing, and duration, is determined by the City. The City of Duarte may place notices of any kind between programs, including notices disclaiming editorial responsibility or control of program content.

IV. CONTENT GUIDELINES

Duarte’s PEG channel is for producers, as defined in Section II above, to present programming, subject to restrictions as may be expressly authorized herein or otherwise in accordance with law.

1. Commercial Content: Duarte PEG channel resources shall not be used for private financial gain or commercial purposes. Therefore, no program showing on Duarte’s PEG channel may contain commercial advertisements or be designed to promote any commercial product, service, or business. Non-promotional information may be discussed, but no direct call to action may be included at any point. Phone numbers, addresses, and websites may be provided “for more information.” 

2. Non-Profit Fundraising Content: Duarte’s departmental organizations and producers may request in writing to use Duarte’s channels for charitable fund-raising purposes. The City must authorize in writing any use of Duarte’s channel for fundraising programs before they are scheduled.

3. Technical Quality Standards: The City understands that many programs may be submitted by producers with limited technical experience and/or equipment. Content created with less than state-of-the-art camcorders, mobile devices, and editing equipment are permissible. However, it is necessary that each program offered for airing on Duarte’s PEG channel maintain optimal technical quality standards. Poor technical quality, including but not limited to compromised audio, missing audio, unstable footage, and/or blurry footage, may interfere with a viewer’s ability to appreciate program content or continue watching Duarte’s PEG channel. At the discretion of staff, such content may not be aired.

4. Violations: It is the responsibility of staff not to air programs that are found to be in violation of policies and guidelines for channel use, or in accordance with and subject to applicable law, are determined to contain obscenity or other illegal content. Programs that are found in violation may not be scheduled, scheduled programs may not be aired, and programs may be interrupted during air or may not be repeated. Staff will use discretion in assessing the severity of the violation and appropriate follow-up. Staff may discuss concerns with the producer and make every effort to rectify the case, including documenting the issue and follow-up. The producer may be required to provide information in writing. If Duarte and the producer cannot come to an agreement, the matter will be referred to the City Manager’s Office for final decision. Duarte may use discretion in limiting or prohibiting PEG channel air time for producers with multiple violations of this PEG Policy or any local, state, or federal law.

5. Content Featuring Minors: Producers requesting air time for any programming involving minors must provide written parental permissions for their appearance on Duarte’s PEG channel prior to air time.

V. POLICY COMPLIANCE

Producers requesting channel time must be familiar with and carefully adhere to these policies and related guidelines. All programs submitted for channel time are subject to staff review to ensure compliance with the policies and procedures documented in this PEG Policy. Staff is directed to use discretion in withholding any program found to be in violation, pending further review. 

By submitting a Program Submittal Request Form, the producer also submits a Statement of Compliance, which holds the producer liable for program content. In submitting the form, the producer warrants that the program does not include:

A. Any material that is libelous, slanderous, or otherwise a defamation of character, or material that is an unlawful invasion of privacy.

B. Any material that violates state or federal laws relating to obscenity. Obscenity is not considered protected speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

C. Any obscene or indecent material is prohibited.

D. Any advertising or material that promotes any commercial product or service.

E. Any solicitation or appeal for funds except for non-profit fundraising content with written approval from the City.

F.Any unlawful use of copyrighted material.

G. Any content in violation of local, state, or federal law not expressly stated in the Duarte PEG Policy.

In submitting the Program Submittal Request Form, producers also agree to indemnify and hold harmless the City of Duarte, its staff, consultants, contractors, volunteers, and employees, from any and all claims, demands, damages, or other liabilities, including legal fees and expenses that may arise as a result of showing the program.

Public access producers shall be aware that under the federal Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 as amended, whoever transmits over any cable system any matter that is obscene or otherwise unprotected by the Constitution of the United States is liable for substantial criminal penalties. Any civil or criminal complaints or other legal matters resulting from display of a program will be referred to the producer who requested the air time. A producer who requests the display of a program produced by someone else assumes liability. 

The City of Duarte does not provide legal advice to producers.