By Barbara Augsdorfer, Editor for the Effingham Herald

The Guyton City Council held its first official meeting Jan. 10 with Mayor Andy Harville and new Councilmembers Jeremiah Chancey and Theodore Hamby.

The meeting was postponed one day due to the inclement weather forecast for Jan. 9.

The one item added to the agenda and discussed for the most amount of time is whether the city should allow public comments on its Facebook page.

“I’m 100% for that – to allow comments on the city Facebook page,” Mayor Harville said.

City Manager Meketa Brown cautioned the new council regarding the need to constantly monitor the page for inappropriate comments and content.

“The city's Facebook page and the city's website are for information purposes only. You can of course post video to your elected officials page or the other pages that the community may have,” Brown said.

Brown added that including public comments on city Facebook pages is not uncommon.

“It is in step with the GMA (Georgia Municipal Association). Other municipalities have this practice,” Brown continued. “I was just thinking as an administrative thing for us to keep it nice and clean where residents can go and get the official information from the city.”

Then there are some legal ramifications for the city to consider.

“The reason that is because when you have someone monitoring comments and deciding who can comment, you could potentially run into some content restrictions which could present some Constitutional issues,” said City Attorney Wes Rahn.

Mayor Harville was not swayed.

“I have plenty of time and plenty of Facebook experience. I feel comfortable (being) the one (to do) that,” Harville volunteered. “I wouldn't necessarily delete comments, I believe you can hide comments that way they're still there. I don't want to delete anybody's comments unless they're vulgar in nature.”

Brown reminded the council that the policy must be cognizant of First Amendment free speech rights; and to be aware of any comments that could be threats.

In other action, the Guyton City Council:

·       Approved $39,760 from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to rebuild the effluent pumps at the Guyton Wastewater Treatment Plant.

·       Approved $8,199 for repairs to a 2013 Guyton Police Dept. Ford F-150

·       Accepted a $2,500 donation to the Guyton Police Dept. from Leadership for the Generations, LLC.

·       Approved a resolution to add Presidents’ Day to the list of city holidays, and

·       Appointed Councilmember Theodore Hamby as the city representative to the Downtown Development Authority board.

The next City Council meeting is Feb. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Guyton Gym, 505 Magnolia St.

Other events coming up in the City of Guyton are:

·       Downtown Development Authority meets Jan. 17, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Guyton Gym.

·       Parent University will be held Jan. 20 at Guyton Elementary School, all day, beginning at 8:15 a.m.

·       Planning and Zoning public hearing and meetings are Jan. 23 and Jan. 30, 7 p.m. at the Guyton Gym.