A social media post has resulted in a new policy for the City of Union, leading to a heated discussion at Monday’s commission meeting.
The policy will require the approval of the majority of the commission before content can be posted to social media in the future.
The post in question was on Facebook, wishing the Union community a happy Pride Month. Commissioner Brian Garner contacted the commission’s communication coordinator on June 19, inquiring if a Pride Month post would be made; the post was shared a few days later.
Garner pointed out that the same post was shared the previous year without issue.
“What would have prompted consultation of legal counsel for a basic request?” Garner asked Greg Voss, the city’s attorney.
Garner referenced Union’s human rights resolution and stated that the content did not violate any ordinances. He used the mayor’s fairness resolution to argue that the commission should use social media platforms to develop custom messages, supporting fairness.
According to Voss, the request was seen as an action decided by one commissioner for the entire commission, making a new policy necessary.
Garner questioned who had brought the issue to Voss, and why it was this post, and not former posts made in the same manner, that seemed to cause conflict.
“I know that we’ve had an Earth Day post, and we’ve had an International Women’s Day post. And those were no issues,” said Garner.
The post received a lot of mixed reactions from the community and resulted in comments being limited.
“It was a sensitive issue; that was the reason that multiple people got involved.” commission John Mefford said about the topic of Pride Month and creating social media content focused on it. Mefford is the chairman of the communications committee.
“If this would’ve been about Easter egg hunts coming up, nobody would have said anything,” Mefford commented.
The policy will be implemented within the coming weeks. The commission hopes to create an outlined social media calendar for future posts that will be able to be approved all at once.