Riverhead appoints manager for town’s social media accounts

Despite some debate regarding Riverhead’s social media policy, the town board will maintain the guidelines in place to update the town’s social media accounts regularly.

The board disagreed at a Jan. 17 meeting over the town’s use of social media, with Councilwoman Jodi Giglio casting the lone dissenting vote in a 4-1 decision to appoint Patrick Derenze, secretary to the town supervisor’s office, to administer and manage Riverhead’s official social media accounts and the town’s social media use policy.

The previous board voted 5-0 in 2016 to adopt the policy, which established Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts on behalf of the town and set rules for town agencies and organizations posting on such channels.

At the board’s Jan. 25 work session, Giglio said she was concerned about others having posted comments such as business advertisements in the town’s social media posts.

“One of the response comments [on downtown Riverhead] was ‘Look at what Huntington is doing,’ and then there was another one from Brookhaven,” Giglio said.

Giglio added that she preferred to eliminate the ability to comment on the town’s social media channels altogether, citing the difficulty in monitoring appropriate comments on a constant basis.

Town Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith and other board members decided to continue with the current policy for the time being.

“If [the town’s social media] becomes more active, then it becomes more user-friendly, and that helps support what’s going on through the town,” Jens-Smith said.