Village of Sister Bay Will Start Facebook Page

After two weeks of debate, the Village of Sister Bay has decided to begin using a government Facebook page to communicate with constituents.

Village President Denise Bhirdo wasn’t sure if a government website would bring more people into discussions that weren’t already getting informed. But after rethinking the idea, the village has decided to try to use social media on a limited basis to get the word out.

“I was never against it; I just didn’t think it would be a great place for village board members to debate issues,” she says. “But as a reminder of upcoming meetings, that doesn’t necessarily take a huge amount of time.”

The Sister Bay government has in fact had a Facebook page for three months, but hasn’t used it at all. Bhirdo says she and Village Administrator Robert Kufrin will both be administrators of the page.

“We’re going to start out slow,” she says. “At this point in time I will only do it for the planning commission and the village board, not the other committees.”

Sister Bay is being very careful not to let their government officials overstep the bounds of their respective offices.

“It’s going to be very factual,” Bhirdo says. “What’s on the agenda, a few sentences about what it entails. We’re also going to be writing a social media policy [in August], basically stating that no board members can post on there. The last thing that I want to happen is to have a village board member correct somebody or disagree with someone’s opinion, and all of a sudden they open themselves up to a bunch of legal issues.”

The Village will also be carefully monitoring comments on the page to make sure that debates don’t get out of hand.

“I’ve seen other Facebook pages that end up being a little nasty,” Bhirdo says. “I would want to monitor that, and to make sure that nobody is spreading mistruths.”

But Bhirdo says she will not stifle discussion, providing the language is appropriate and village officials are not targeted.

“We’re not going to delete a post that has opposing opinions,” she says. “This is going to be a venue for people to spew about whatever they want to spew about, as long as it’s done in an articulate and well thought-out manner.”

Bhirdo says she thinks communication via Facebook between government and constituents can be lasting.

“Do I think that there’s going to be something else in the future? Most likely. But we’re going to stick with this for now. We’re not just going to do this for six months and then stop. If we really want to try to get other people involved in the community that they live in, it’s going to take a concerted effort.”

Click here to go to the Sister Bay government Facebook page.