Snohomish gets on Facebook, but finds it’s more complicated for government

Published 9:15 am Tuesday, February 23, 2010

SNOHOMISH — Starting a Facebook page is quick, easy and free — assuming you’re not city hall.

Snohomish recently launched its own Facebook page. The process took about two months, cost $1,000 in design work and involved consulting city attorneys.

Officials were worried about something the average Facebook member never considers: open-government laws.

“With a public records request for a wall on Facebook — how do you do that?” city economic developer Debbie Emge asked.

The short answer: carefully.

As it stands now, the law, with very few exceptions, requires government agencies to keep information open to the public or risk hefty fines.

Most documents need to be saved. Most also need to released upon request. And most meetings need to be held in the open.

The courts haven’t fully applied the law to social networking sites, however. Cities are left to guess what they can and can’t do online.

“I think most agencies are approaching this cautiously,” said Tim Ford, an open-government ombudsman with state Attorney General Rob McKenna’s office.

Saving public records can get tricky on the sites. For instance, a visitor might post a video clip to a city’s site. That clip could count as a public record, Ford said.

In Snohomish, the city plans to create PDF files of its Facebook wall, a place where users post messages. The city also has a program to grab and save video clips, preserving those.

Social networking sites also stir up freedom-of-speech issues.

Ramsey Ramerman,* an Everett city attorney, heads up the Washington Association of Public Records Officers, a group that educates cities on open government.

Facebook and Twitter — both sites used by Everett — may count as public forums, meaning they’re protected by the First Amendment. With that in mind, cities shouldn’t delete critical remarks from their pages, he said.

“You have to be ready to take the good with the bad,” Ramerman said.

While many legal issues have yet to be settled, cities like Snohomish are joining social networks nonetheless.

Snohomish attracted more than 150 “fans” to its Facebook page as of Friday, about a week after it launched.

The city hired Seattle firm Socialbees for $1,000 to design the site, Emge said. The firm created special sections to promote tourism and local businesses.

The money was well spent, Snohomish Mayor Karen Guzak said.

Guzak, one of the city page’s early “fans,” praised the move onto Facebook.

“It’s a good thing,” she said. “There’s more and more people that are accessing information through social sites.”

Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455, arathbun@heraldnet.com.

Become a fan

Snohomish launched its Facebook page earlier this month. Visit it at http://tinyurl.com/Facebook Snohomish.

* This story has been changed since it was first posted to correct the spelling of Ramsey Ramerman’s name.