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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE cwade@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 3, 2009

TAMPA - Mayor Pam Iorio has a Facebook page. So do city council members Tom Scott and Linda Saul-Sena. And the city just started "tweeting" information to its residents.

Increasingly, elected officials are using online social networks to reach out to constituents, disseminate information and discuss the affairs of local government.

But engaging the public in cyberspace raises legal issues, Tampa officials are learning.

In a memo to council members, City Attorney Chip Fletcher cautioned that the use of these sites for city business is covered by Florida's open meeting and records laws.

That means that if someone posts information on a council member's Facebook page about a project, Fletcher wrote last month, and another council member posts a comment on it, it would be a dialogue outside a public meeting that could violate the Sunshine Law.

"These technologies are not any different than e-mail; it's just a different format," Fletcher said. "While somebody is using city e-mail to do city business, that would be covered" by the public records laws.

Another concern, Fletcher said, is that information related to city business posted on these sites must be saved and archived.

"If you're using it for an official purpose then, yeah, those folks doing that need to print those out or somehow archive them," he said. "You need to maintain those like any other document that you might generate."

Fletcher said his memo was not based on any misuse by city officials.

Some government agencies in other states have banned employees from using the networks on the job for any purposes, citing, among other things, possible security risks.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum issued a legal opinion in April saying the use of social networking sites for government business is covered by the state's open meeting and records laws.

The opinion was requested by the Coral Springs City Commission, which was concerned about using a Facebook page to communicate with residents.

"While there would not appear to be a prohibition against a board or commission member posting a comment on the city's Facebook page, members of the board or commission must not engage in an exchange or discussion of matters that foreseeably will come before the board or commission for official action," McCollum wrote.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe has both Facebook and Twitter accounts and uses both to keep the public informed.

"Yes Facebook and Twitter are public records and they should be," Sharpe said. "The key is for people not to think they can use it for getting around the public records law."

Iorio's Facebook page is filled with civic boosterism and includes photos of the city's Gasparilla parade, its recent Super Bowl festivities and the opening of the new IKEA store, among other images.

"Just led a group of Tampa Bay business leaders to Toronto and Mississauga to strengthen and promote business relationships between Canada and Tampa," reads a June 11 update on her page, which is open to anyone.

Last month, county Commissioner Rose Ferlita used her Facebook page to reaffirm her support for a referendum next November on a sales tax for mass transit. Her support had been called into question after the creator of the Ferlita for Mayor Web site said he was against the tax vote.

Reporters Mike Salinero and Adam Emerson contributed to this report. Christian M. Wade can be reached at (813) 259-7679.

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