COUNCIL AGENDA: 05/20/2025
FILE: 25-533
ITEM: 3.3
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND
CITY COUNCIL
FROM: Mayor Mahan
Councilmember Candelas
Councilmember Ortiz
Councilmember Cohen
SUBJECT: SEE BELOW DATE: 05/16/25
APPROVED:
SUBJECT: New City Council Policy for Seamless Transition of City Elected Official Offices.
Recommendation
Accept the staff recommendation and resolution with the following amendments and additions:
Administration Response to Recommendation #1
City Official Accounts:
To ensure City communications reach the wide and diverse community of San José, the City uses multiple tools. The Administration will provide elected officials with core accounts and software, including social media, CRM, e-mail communications, and access to the City website to update or create City Council Office webpages. The Administration will provide City-based social media accounts when requested by the Mayor or Councilmembers.
Administration’s Response to Recommendation #3
Staff conducted research on the feasibility of business accounts for over ten social media software and concluded that most did not have an additional cost.
ITD will administer business accounts for social media platforms. Access granted will align with approvals provided by the Elected Official or their Chief of Staff. Access requests or removals will be submitted through the Help Desk system. ITD will not post any content on behalf of the Elected Official or their City Council Office.
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
05/16/2025
Subject:
Rev 1/2018
City-based social media accounts can be used as business accounts and may be used as an account for constituent communications.
Administration’s Response to Recommendation #8
The proposed City Council Policy 0-47 provides the structure to prevent lapses in constituent communication and services between transitions. Exemptions to this policy will risk an inefficient transition of such services and communication, therefore, both the City Clerk’s Office and the City Manager’s Office strongly recommend all current Mayor and City Councilmembers officially transition to City Council Policy 0-47.
Refer to Recommendation #1 for social media accounts. If current Mayor and City Councilmembers have software and service accounts not connected to Citybased accounts, they must update these accounts from personal accounts to City-based accounts by the end of 2025 as part of this new recommended policy.
If current Mayor and City Councilmembers use websites or other services paid by the City and not connected to City-based accounts, then they must update these accounts from personal accounts to City email accounts no later than December 2025.
RESOLUTION
EXHIBIT A
3. ADMINISTRATION OF TECHNOLOGY
The Administration will provide newly elected Mayor and Councilmembers with core accounts and software for social media, e-mail communications, the CRM system and web platforms.
To ensure continued services to constituents with no lapse, all outgoing Mayor and City Councilmembers must transition communication accounts and software to the City Clerk’s Office five business days before leaving office. The Administration will provide City-based social media accounts when requested by the Mayor or Councilmembers.
Use of City-based accounts for all software and services used for City business: All software and service accounts used for City business (e.g., social media, e-mail marketing, constituent database, software subscriptions) must be connected to users with an active City-based account. The Mayor and City Councilmembers may not convert their campaign social media accounts into an official government account. All official City business communication must originate from a City-based account.
City business communications are recommended to originate from a City-based accounts.
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
05/16/2025
Subject:
Rev 1/2018
City-based social media accounts are to can be set as business accounts for the use of the office and should may be used as an the primary account for constituent communications.
Background
In order to best serve the public, it is crucial to mindfully govern the administration of technology during transitions in elected officials in ways that reduce the likelihood of unnecessary complications. Constituents understand that there are several consistent channels of communication with their Council Offices that remain unchanged when an office changes hands.
Constituents also understand that each individual who runs for and serves in elected office has a unique identity that is specific to them and cannot be merely handed off to the next individual who serves in that office. While certain official channels of communication, such as an office phone line, office-branded email, office-branded social media account, and official office website, should remain within the possession of a given office and remain consistent across individual officeholders, there are other communication media, such as social media accounts, that are inherently personalized and authentic to the identity of an individual. This latter category of communication tools cannot be merely handed off to the next officeholder. Constituents understand the distinction and we should embrace it in practice.
Any newly elected Mayor and Councilmembers may have the option of having a City-based social media account, but mandating such an account and its usage would be duplicative and cause confusion for the general public. Due to the potentially widespread and long-lasting impact of this proposed memo, it is vital that the permissive use and ownership of such accounts are explicitly addressed and enumerated.
The signers of this memorandum have not had, and will not have, any private conversation with any other member of the City Council, or that member’s staff, concerning any action discussed in the memorandum, and that each signer’s staff members have not had, and have been instructed not to have, any such conversation with any other member of the City Council or that member's staff.