Greater than two years after an outgoing San Jose Metropolis Council councilmember refused to relinquish social media accounts to its successor, metropolis officers have crafted a brand new coverage to make sure a smoother transition of energy, with newly elected leaders higher geared up to serve their constituents on day one.
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Two years in the past, District 7 Councilmember Bien Doan pushed for the town to ascertain new guidelines and protocols after he mentioned Maya Esparza, his predecessor, refused handy over mailing lists, district-associated web sites and entry to buyer relationship administration software program. Including to the problems, Esparza’s accounts didn’t instantly replace her standing to being a former councilmember.
“We all know public service is built on trust, not just how we lead but how we leave office,” Doan mentioned. “Transitions between election officials are necessary and how we manage them matter very deeply.”
Esparza didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The brand new coverage will create a standardized course of with the administration offering core accounts and software program that permit the IT division to raised management entry to assets paid for by the town. Entry to different web sites and providers paid for by the town should even be ultimately tied again to metropolis accounts.
“In recent years, we’ve seen how the lack of a clear process during this transition can lead to unnecessary complications, service disruptions to our constituents, lost access to digital platforms, confusion over constituent data, and questions about who controls what,” Doan mentioned. “These gaps don’t just impact us. They impact our residents.”
Town additionally will present social media accounts when elected officers ask for them, permitting them a bit of extra leeway ought to they wish to model themselves in a different way. Nevertheless, all official enterprise communications should originate from a metropolis account.
AB 1637, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into legislation in 2023, already required all cities and counties to transition their web sites and worker electronic mail addresses to .gov domains by 2029.
Whereas elected officers can obtain coaching forward of taking workplace, District 1 Councilmember Rosemary Kamei has pushed for the town clerk and metropolis lawyer’s workplace to incorporate steering on acceptable makes use of of official, private and marketing campaign accounts, saying that the traces may change into blurred and it was essential to grasp the roles and tasks in a political workplace.
For instance, if an elected official used private accounts to conduct metropolis enterprise, responding to public data requests could be tougher.
“At the end of the day, it is a responsible, proactive measure that we want to ensure taxpayer dollars are used appropriately and that there is a differentiation between official city business, personal and campaign (accounts),” Kamei mentioned. “I think that we are accountable to the public and when we see an opportunity to improve how we can govern and protect public resources, we should do it.”
The usual onboarding course of often contains steering on staffing and hiring, funds assessment, tools procurement and expenditure and reimbursement insurance policies.
Whereas he mentioned the method to organize new councilmembers has improved, in comparison with the “horror stories” of different officers, District 6 Councilmember Michael Mulcahy mentioned he would love the town to contemplate different adjustments earlier than the subsequent set of metropolis councilmembers is seated after the November 2026 election based mostly on his personal expertise coming into workplace earlier this 12 months, together with when the precise transition of energy happens.
“When we’re transitioning, everybody is off on a recess, and by the time Jan. 5 or 6 rolled around, we (were) expected to be up and running, and we were not,” Mulcahy mentioned.
Mulcahy additionally added that the funds figures he was offered in November had been lower than what he inherited, impacting his planning when his workplace started hiring workers.
“I think an opportunity to have a deep dive with those colleagues that just sort of came in and (have) gone through this process would be helpful,” Mulcahy mentioned. “I think we gave feedback on the training we got, but some of the more practical on-the-ground issues we faced around physical transition and budget transition, I think, would go one step further to helping the next set of councilmembers.”
