§ 2-230.10. E-mail policy.

(a) As part of our effort to facilitate work, the city provides electronic mail services to employees. These systems are designed to facilitate your communication with employees and with the public when such communication is part of your job. All electronic communication systems and all communications and stored information transmitted, received or contained in the city's information systems are the property of the city.

(b) E-mail is for the use of employees in the performance of their jobs. However, it is recognized that occasional communications between employees at work via e-mail for personal reasons under circumstances that do not take away from or interfere with their duties or the duties of those employees with whom they communicate, is not prohibited except:

(1) No e-mail will contain any materials which is political, slanderous, controversial, critical of any person or entity, or which contains vulgar language, references to sexual matters or is otherwise inappropriate.

(2) E-mail for personal reasons should be used only when it is important that the employee communicate with another employee at work about a personal matter and another method of communication would take time away from the employee's work, e-mail is not to be used for "chit-chat," telling jokes and communicating personal information unless it is necessary.

(3) The city manager, or the city manager's designee, will determine when this section is being violated.

(c) Employees shall not use a code, access a file, or retrieve any stored information, other than those for which they are authorized, unless there has been prior clearance by the city manager, IS manager, or their designees.

(d) While electronic mail may require the use of a password for security, confidentiality cannot be guaranteed. Messages may be reviewed by someone other than the intended recipient. All passwords must be made known to the IS division.

(e) To ensure that the use of the city's information system and other electronic communications systems is consistent with the city's legitimate business interests and not a violation of this section, authorized representatives of the city will monitor the use of such equipment from time to time.

(f) Employees using this equipment for improper personal purposes do so at the risk of discipline in accordance with section 2-211.

(g) Employees should also be aware that electronic records (such as e-mail and computer stored documents) are public records and as such are subject to access by the general public as well as the press in the same manner as physical documents. Thus, any electronic communication concerning any official business may not be deleted or destroyed (i.e., erased from computer memory) until a hard copy is printed and retained with other public records.

(h) Employees shall not attempt to read, "hack" into other systems or other employee's logins, or "crack" passwords, or breach computer or network security measures, or monitor electronic messages of other employees or third parties except by explicit direction of city management.

(i) No electronic mail may be sent which attempts to hide the identity of the sender, or represents the sender as someone else.

(j) Electronic mail should not be used in a manner that is likely to cause network congestion or significantly hamper the ability of other employees to access and use the system.

(k) Remember, although you can delete e-mail, it does not go away and can always be retrieved, and may be reviewed at any time by the city to ensure compliance with this section and by the public upon a proper request under the Florida Public Records Law. UNDERSTAND ANYTHING YOU PUT IN A CITY COMPUTER MAY BE ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE NEWSPAPER.

(Ord. No. 2001-08, § 1, 6-19-01)