Social Media Terms of Service

This forum has been established as a limited public forum with respect to the First Amendment and is intended to promote increased communication between the City of Cotati and the public on matters of interest to the residents of Cotati. The City reserves the right to remove any content (including messages, images, etc.) that it deems, in its sole discretion, to be abusive, obscene, defamatory, in violation of the copyright, trademark right, or other intellectual property right of any third party, or otherwise inappropriate. Repeat violators will be removed.

Examples of content, or links to content, that may be removed by the City of Cotati include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Potentially libelous content; or
  • Obscene content; or
  • Personal attacks, insults, or threatening language; or
  • False, vicious, or malicious statements about City employees or operations; or
  • Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, age, religion, gender, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, or any other basis protected by state or federal law; or
  • Plagiarized content or content that violates a legal ownership interest of any other party; or
  • Confidential or personnel information published without consent; or
  • Comments not topically related to the content being commented upon; or
  • Commercial promotions or spam; or
  • Information that may compromise the safety of security of the public or public systems or employees; or
  • Content in support of or in opposition to political campaigns or ballot measures; or
  • Hyperlinks to material that is not directly related to the discussion; or
  • Conduct or encouragement of illegal activity
  1. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the City of Cotati is not obligated to take any such actions, and will not be responsible or liable for content posted by any subscriber in any forum, message board, or other area within this social media site.
  2. Content posted by a member of the public on any City of Cotati social media site is the opinion of the commentator or poster only, and the publication of a comment does not imply endorsement of, or agreement by, the City of Cotati, nor do such comments necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the City of Cotati.
  3. By posting content, the user (or "you") agrees to indemnify the City of Cotati, its officers, staff, volunteers and contractors from and against all liabilities, judgments, damages, and costs (including attorneys' fees) incurred by any of them which arise out of or are related to the content posted by you. If you do not agree to these terms, you should not use this City of Cotati sponsored site. A violation of these terms may lead to legal action and liability.
  4. Any content posted or submitted for posting may be retained in accordance with the City's Record Retention Policy, and may be subject to public disclosure upon request, in accordance with the requirements of the Public Records Request Act or as required by a legal action.