Outgoing Heber City Councilmember Scott Phillips said he wants a consistent policy for all government communications.
“I feel like this is important – to have a communication policy where all communication from the city is vetted by the city manager and staff before being sent out,” he said.
He said at a council meeting Nov. 18 the policy would apply to newsletters, social media posts, press releases and more.
A staff report lays out several proposed steps for city communications to be vetted and shared. It also makes suggestions such as including diverse perspectives, separating personal and government communications, and fact-checking all information.
Councilmember Aaron Cheatwood proposed some additions to the policy.
“I would like to add that the policy come back with a recommendation that newsletters, no matter who wrote them, myself included, be given final review by legal counsel before they’re sent out – just to make sure there’s nothing legally impermissible,” he said.
Councilmember Yvonne Barney, however, balked at the proposal to involve the city attorney.
“To force us to do it, then it becomes something where, first of all, we’re making it so stringent that we could possibly – and again, I’m hoping that we wouldn’t – but that there would be the possibility of using it as a weapon to shut down the freedom of speech,” she said.
Cheatwood said his only intention is for the city to avoid any unnecessary legal liability.
He also suggested councilmembers and city staff regularly gather ideas for resident surveys.
“I think it will just encourage engagement and show that we are ready and willing to listen to the residents,” he said.
Mayor Heidi Franco said she’s in favor of regular citizen surveys. As mayor, she has sent out surveys from her personal website on topics such as the Main Street park and the Heber Valley bypass.
She said she would be happy to see elected leaders and staff collaborate on future surveys.
“I am so excited that finally we’re going to be able to do this together, instead of using them as weapons to bludgeon each other over,” she said.
Both Franco and Phillips cited ranked-choice voting as an issue. Franco said the city had sent out “one-sided information” about the voting method, while Phillips has previously called the mayor out for inaccurate statements about ranked-choice ballots.
Phillips unsuccessfully challenged Franco in the race for Heber mayor this fall and won’t be returning to the council next year.
City staff will draft a communications policy for approval at a future meeting. Barney was the only “no” vote.
Heber City is a financial supporter of KPCW.
