Orland Park Village Board votes to approve social media policy, discontinue after-school program
New policy can restrict comments that are not relevant to content that is posted on Village social media channels
By Jon DePaolis
ORLAND PARK, Ill. — The Village of Orland Park Board of Trustees voted unanimously Monday, July 6, to approve a social media policy that will allow the Village to restrict comments or posts on its social media accounts that are not germane to the content.
Mallory Milluzzi — an attorney with Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins, Ltd. — presented the social media policy during the Committee of the Whole (COTW) meeting earlier in the evening. The official approval — passed by a 7-0 vote — came during the Village Board meeting later.
Milluzzi said social media pages are considered public forums, “meaning they are subject to the First Amendment.”
“That means the Village can’t restrict speech just because it doesn’t like the views or the message of the speaker,” she said. “What our proposed policy does is create and establish the social media platforms as a limited public forum, meaning that we can reserve it and limit it for specific topics.”
Milluzzi said those topics can be limited to Village events, programs, projects, activities or other Village-related business.
“The purpose of the policy is to inform and communicate with the citizens about things happening in Orland Park,” she said.
Per the policy, social media comments and content that the Village can restrict include:
Comments that are slanderous, libelous, defamatory, or that reference the personality of an individual, as well as personal attacks.
Comments that are not relevant to the item a post is about or the Village of Orland Park in general.
Posts that discriminate against race, creed, color, age, religion, gender, marital status, status regarding public assistance, national origin, physical or mental disability, or sexual orientation.
Sexual content (including links to such content).
Business solicitations.
Personal identification information (such as address, phone number and social security number).
Comments representing someone else.
Solicitations from charities or political campaigns.
Encouraging or engaging in illegal activity.
Posts that violate the legal ownership interest of another party.
However, Milluzzi said that certain things cannot be restricted, such as posts that may contain unpleasant or offensive language.
“If it is right on that gray line, you want to err more on the side of the First Amendment,” she said.
Upon being approved, Milluzzi said notices would need to be posted on the Village’s social media accounts to inform citizens of the policy and what can be restricted.
During the discussion, Trustee William Healy asked what the process will be if a social media comment or post is determined to be in violation of the policy. He also asked if there was any kind of appeals process.
Milluzzi said the Village’s Public Information Office will handle any content restrictions on the social media pages. And while she said there is no set appeals process, the citizen who posted the comment will be notified of the content restriction and the reason why it was deleted or hidden.
“So, there are some ways to either repost it to remove what violated the [policy] or to challenge it and discuss it with the public information officer,” Milluzzi said.
Staff also will keep a screenshot of the content and a record of why it was deleted or removed.
After the COTW meeting, Village Manager George Koczwara said Orland Park was “kind of late in the game on this.”
“If you look at every other municipality, they have a social media policy already,” he said. “It’s pretty much identical to this. All we’re doing is we’re just laying out our rules.”
In a nutshell, any comment on a Village social media post must be related to that topic.
“It has to be topical,” he said. “We do have that option to remove it [if it isn’t].”
When asked what the Village’s response would be if someone said the policy restricts a citizen’s right to criticize his or her Village government or elected officials, Koczwara said people can always express those at a Village Board meeting during public comment period.
“Before social media, that’s how people did it,” he said.
Citizens also can leave comments about the Village Board or the Orland Park government on any social media post pertaining to Village Board meetings.
Koczwara also addressed a question of if anyone is being blocked by the Village’s social media accounts. He said that for as long as he has been with the Village, no one has been blocked on a Village account.
“There is nobody blocked,” he said. “Now, if it happened before, that’s possible.”
The Village Board members also voted 7-0 to discontinue Orland Park’s after-school program for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The program — After School Pals — was based at the Village’s Cultural Arts Center and was open to students enrolled at Orland School District 135, Kruse Education Center and St. Michael School, according to Village documents.
Koczwara told the board members that D135 is starting an after-school program. As all of the students currently enrolled in the Village’s program are from D135, Koczwara felt the Village’s program was “repeating the same service.”
Mayor Keith Pekau agreed, stating that the Village’s program was a duplicative service. He also said that by eliminating the program, the Village would no longer have the liability concerns associated with it.
According to Village documents related to the discontinuation of the After School Pals program, Orland Park will save approximately $99,722 yearly by eliminating the program. However, the Village also will lose approximately $98,359 in yearly revenue.