Madison Heights Councilwoman Kymm Clark sent the city her resignation letter a day after the council approved a new social media policy in a 5-2 vote earlier this week.
Council members voted unanimously Thursday night, with Clark abstaining, to officially accept her resignation.
Clark is an administrator with several others on many privately run social media accounts focused on the city events and activities, including the Friends of Madison Heights and the Madison Heights Neighborhood Forum on Facebook.
Clark’s resignation letter did not explicitly mention the new social media policy adopted by the council Monday, but said she would continue to stay involved in “engaging my community, educating them about our city government” and encouraging development and bringing “more accessible quality of life programming to our residents.”
She demanded that her resignation be accepted for the sake of her “mental, emotional and physical health.”
City Council members have had training through the Michigan Municipal League on social media use by members and how it can conflict with the state’s Open Meetings Act, said City Manager Melissa Marsh.
“The goal of the (social media) policy encourages council members to separate their public and private social media accounts,” Marsh said, “and to prevent the opportunity of any council member to engage in public censorship in actions or communications that take place on social media.”
A number of people blocked from Facebook pages where Clark is one of the administrators have complained to city officials.
Clark said she believes the city’s new social media policy is unconstitutional and has reached out to the American Civil Liberties Union, the Michigan Attorney General’s office and others. Clark noted that the social media groups she is involved with are private Facebook groups and not official city groups.
“The policy was targeted at me because I’m extremely engaged in the community,” she said. “The policy would have made it so that I would have had to unblock people (from Facebook pages) who harass (other) residents and me” online.
During the council’s meeting Monday, Clark said that one person she had blocked from a Facebook page had threatened her. She said a man with a profile picture of himself with guns strapped to his chest, sent her a private Facebook message saying he would “make sure I never got elected if it was the last thing he did.”
Madison Heights’s new social media policy would have required that she unblock such people, Clark said.
City Attorney Larry Sherman drafted the social media policy for elected officials based on legal opinions from existing case law.
“If you are not discussing city business on private pages you can block whoever you want,” he said. “What crosses the line in our view is when city business mixes with a private Facebook page.”
City business is defined as anything that relates to the business of the council or city, he said.
“This policy is not as aggressive as several (nearby) communities are looking at,” Sherman said.
Mayor Roslyn Grafstein requested a social media policy, she said, because of “the number of complaints I have received (from) … people kicked out of these (social media) forums.”
Madison Heights has 30 different privately run forums, she added.
The complaints are from people who feel they are being blocked from finding out about what is happening in the city, Grafstein said, even when the mayor has explained they are private forums.
But people don’t see the difference between the public and private Facebook pages about city matters.
“They see (the forums) are about the city and one of the council members is running the page,” Grafstein said. “The concern is there is viewpoint discrimination going on by a council member.”
With its social media policy, Madison Heights is trying to get ahead of being put in a legal predicament, she added.
Sherman cited a recent case ruling that found anytime a public official engages in a public discussion it constitutes a public forum. The official cannot use the claim of being a private citizen to avoid the First Amendment rights imposed on the government to avoid restricting another person’s free speech rights.
Still, Clark asked during Monday’s meeting whether officials had weighed the motives of those who have complained about being blocked on Facebook forums.
“Have you considered that people complaining that they have been blocked because of their beliefs might be lying,” Clark asked, “and might have said and done things to other people, that they mean them harm and mean their families harm? And (they) might come and give an affidavit of fact and fill it with lies?”
Clark was elected to a four year-term in 2019 that expires in 2023.
When such a vacancy happens, the city charter directs the council to fill the vacancy for the unexpired term with the highest vote-getter in the last city council election.
That person is Sean Fleming, who is one of six candidates running for one of the three four-year council seats in the Nov. 2 election.
The City Council is scheduled to appoint Fleming to the remainder of Clark’s term at its meeting Oct. 11.
The social media policy is available on the city’s website in the City Council agenda for its Sept. 27 meeting.
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