One of the first things I will do when elected is turn back on the comments. This NO COMMENT commission is so interested in hearing from its resident’s it has turned off or limited who can comment on official city communication across the most popular social networks residents use today.

This has caused residents to form separate “groups” which then become echo chambers of the different tribes in our city. Nobody knows who to trust, or what group they should follow.

This doesn’t sound like a great strategy for building our city and bringing our people together.

We also did a check around other nearby cities in Central Florida to see how they handle comments and I could not find another that has comments blocked like Winter Springs. Lake Mary, Oviedo, Casselberry, Orlando, Winter Park and others all have comments enabled.

The City of Winter Springs pays a social media consultant $7,000+ per month to manage their online presence, but that apparently does not include comment moderation, which in my opinion one of the best ways to promote transparency in government.

Here are some screen shots that I took that show comments blocked on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

I’d love to hear from residents, do you think we should ask the city to turn on the comments so we can have respectful conversation about the important issues facing our city?