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Capitola Mayor Steps into the Blogosphere
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Capitola Mayor Steps into the Blogosphere
By Monica Woelfel
Mayor Mike Termini wants to increase Capitola residents’ access to local government.
“I see most of the current problems between government and the citizens it serves caused by a disconnect that exists due to a lack of communication,” Termini said in a recent Post column.
Now the mayor is taking his show on the road, or to be more accurate, on-line. At its Apr. 12 meeting, the Capitola City Council approved his plan to launch a mayor’s blog in the next few weeks.
The idea came to the mayor as a “brainstorm.”
“As small as this town is,” he said, “the misinformation runs rampant. I thought, the more accessibility we can get in government, the better.”
Termini plans to start the blog very informally.
“I’ll start by posting half a dozen topics,” he said. “I’ll throw them out there and then see who wants to comment on them.”
The only filtering planned will be, as Termini said, “to keep the level of decorum up.” In other words, only blog entries that contain inappropriate material such as personal attacks or off-color language will be screened out.
Termini was inspired in part by hearing of another city official doing a blog. Diane McNutt of Los Gatos created a blog site that chronicled her year as that town’s mayor.
McNutt, who has since gone back to being, in her words, “just a regular town council member,” had a good experience with her blog overall.
“It is time consuming because you need to add fresh content frequently,” she said, of maintaining the site that was visited by more 2,000 people.
In the end, though, she concluded the work paid off.
“The best part was being able to showcase some of the people and activities of Los Gatos that our residents may not be aware of,” McNutt said.
McNutt did have one warning for other governmental officials like Termini considering entering the blogosphere.
“You have to be very careful to not talk about issues or policy questions that could be a Brown Act violation,” she said, referring to the law governing public access to government meetings.
Only One at a Time
Termini has carefully prepared the groundwork in this regard. Before he brought the blog idea before the City Council, he had the city attorney draft guidelines.
“Any time there is a majority, or quorum, of a government body outside of its official meetings communicating, it may be in violation of the Brown Act,” Termini explained, adding that a blog is no exception.
The city attorney has outlined that, while any citizen can access the site, only a single councilmember (or the mayor) can respond to the blog at a given time.
That way, said Termini, “It won’t be [legally] an unannounced meeting.”
The blog will be available by way of a link on the Capitola city site at www.ci.capitola.ca.us.
Termini’s attitude about the blog is relaxed.
“I thought it was a good idea,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes.”
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