Local government bulletin boards

spurr

I feel confident that our local government entity can restrict use of its workplace and public area bulletin boards to only official government postings..though comments are welcome on that issue. What about a broader policy that allows non-governmental postings as long as they "use discretion and good judgment, but can not post a anything which a reasonable person would find offensive because of inappropriate references to sex, gender or sexual orientation, reace national origin, religious beliefs, age or physical or mental disabilities; nor may the boards be used for editorials or other expressions of personal opinions."

I think such a policy opens a real can of worms...it will be inconsistent in application and puts the government into a position of being a censor. It appears to be far to broad and subjective...but I am in the minority so far. Any thoughts?

System

I would think that whoever has the bulletin board control would want to have the control of what is posted.

I work for a local government entity that has bulletin boards in its offices. The workforce is represented by several unions along with non-represented empllyees (managerial mainly). In each union contract there is a provision that the union may post very specific documents on boards set aside for their use and anything else they want to post has to be approved by the local manager.

I think managers, whether they be in private or public sector, need to have specific control over what is posted on their bulletin boards otherwise there will be problems. Furthermore, in public sector arena there could be issues of First Amendment rights if there is no specifc control of postings -- that is postings need to be job related.

Gar

We're a local government in North Carolina and have bulletin boards in just about all our facilities (40+). We don't have restrictions and we trust our employees to use their own best judgement as to what is appropriate and what isn't. The biggest problem we seem to have is the clutter of old announcements for social events, bake sales and other mundane happenings. Your concerns are legitimate given these days and times. But, unless you've experienced problems with inappropriate notices or announcements, I don't really see a need for a written policy. I suggest you continue trusting your employees to do the right thing and see what happens.

spurr

Thanks for the reply. I appeciate it. I have been thinking that it may be better to "let sleeping dogs lie." Although, I can see a problem cropping up at some point because the current practice is to let anything get posted and to let supervisors take down what they feel is inappropriate.

System

You're right about the potential can of worms. An employee could raise a big stink about the First Amendment if you censor announcements. Even if your actions are completely legal, a big stink still smells bad.

But really, it all boils down to your employees and whether they can get along and be reasonable.

James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers