Anderson City Council to consider adopting social media policy following member’s controversial posts about local flight school

The Anderson City Council will consider adopting a social media policy tomorrow evening following council member Darin Hale’s months of controversial remarks about a local flight school on Facebook.

For months, Hale has accused IASCO Flight Training, a flight school based out of Redding Regional Airport, of participating in Chinese espionage. The accusations — made in posts shared on his personal Facebook page — were not backed by proof. He’s also made numerous posts about alleged Chinese espionage in other settings. 

The school responded to Hale’s initial claims by writing a letter to the Anderson City Council, explaining that his unfounded accusations put the school’s students and staff at risk. The school’s training operations manager also encouraged the council to reflect on the conduct of city officials and “reconsider whether such conduct aligns with the standards expected of those serving in public office.” 

The council held a special meeting late last month to discuss the possibility of staff bringing a social media policy to the council to consider. Members voted 4-1 for staff to bring back a policy to vote on. Hale cast the dissenting vote. 

“I addressed to the rest of Council and the City Manager that I would be ok with a social media policy that provided guidance to staff when operating City social media platforms,” Hale said in an email to Shasta Scout about that meeting, “but that anything outside of those boundaries would be unconstitutional.” 

Now, city staff have prepared a draft policy which will be considered at tomorrow’s meeting. 

The policy outlines rules for city social media accounts, as well as those of elected officials. City social media accounts are defined as accounts that solely represent the city of Anderson, not individual council members or other officials. 

When it comes to the city’s official accounts, the policy says, administrators authorized to post should only use the forum to present the views or concerns of the city. The policy also explains that city accounts act as public forums, and that city statements or public comments containing specific forms of content — including threatening language, sexual content, content that promotes discrimination and information that “may compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems” — would not be allowed. 

There are fewer rules for city officials’ personal social media accounts, likely because the council is limited in how much it can restrict the content of city officials’ personal social media use due to the First Amendment. 

The policy explains that city officials would be allowed to use their personal social media platforms to express their own opinions and views, but they wouldn’t be able to use their personal accounts to speak on behalf of the city. The policy states that if officials are communicating city-related matters on their account, they should “clarify when they are speaking in their private capacity and when they are speaking on behalf of the City.”

It also explains that anyone representing the city on any social media site should conduct themselves as a professional representative of the city and in accordance with city policies, though the behavior of a “professional representative” wasn’t defined. 

Additionally, the policy states that a city official’s personal or private page may become what’s known as a public forum if the official is posting about city matters, among other conditions. If that’s the case, the official would be refrained from blocking members of the public or deleting comments they disagree with even on their personal page in order to comply with the First Amendment, as clarified in a 2024 Supreme Court ruling. 

City officials also can’t discuss city business with a majority of members from the same legislative body or respond directly to another member’s communication in a social media post if the two are from the same legislative body and the topic concerns city business, according to the policy. That’s due to a California transparency law known as the Brown Act. 

Hale’s personal Facebook page identifies him as an Anderson City Council member. He usually posts at least once a day, and his posts contain a combination of city-related matters — such as meeting recaps and agenda previews — and personal opinions, often having to do with China. 

The city council meeting will be held on March 3 at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers located at 1887 Howard Street, Anderson. 

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