Canton City Policy

Discussion of city policy was the subject of council member Pat Tanner's topic under "Council Introduced Items" at the .

Council member Tanner’s subject dealt with the policy or lack thereof regarding:

1. use of city hall facilities;
2. use of city employee’s time for non-Canton governing authority sanctioned events;
3. use of city email lists for non-Canton governing authority sanctioned events;
4. use of city logo for non-Canton governing authority sanctioned events.

All of these policy concerns were the direct result of (my) actions.

My response to each of Ms. Tanner’s concerns:

1. There is no current policy or guideline regarding the use of city hall facilities and there needs to be one. Permission was granted by several different members of the governing authority. 
2. The city of Canton employee, Ginger Garrard, made and honest and innocent mistake not as the result of my asking, but a simple offer (to) “help get the message out by an email blast.” It should not have happened and will not happen again. 
3. I had no knowledge of the size and extent of the email blast list and this list should not have been used for this purpose. Another innocent mistake and this will also never happen again.
4. I did not see the logo attached to the email, which I had forwarded, until after it had been e-blasted. The picture of the city hall building was meant to help with location and not the implication that the city of Canton was behind this meeting. This logo should not have been sent and will never be used in this way again. 

Several city council members are justifiably concerned about the lack of a defined policy or guideline regarding the use of city hall and that will be fixed by the city manager and governing authority. City hall is a perfect place for the future meetings of the Citizen’s Committee for Better Canton Government. I hope we do not have to conduct future meetings on the front steps.

Being forced to sit on the front steps of the city hall during a severe lightning storm could have been electrifying. I thought that our goal was for a better and more equitable compensation package for the very city council members who might prefer we meet on the front steps.