General Policy

The City of Martinez reserves all rights, including termination of service without notice, to the electronic media systems that it owns and operates. Electronic media are intended to be used for City business purposes, including facilitating performance of job functions, communicating information within the City and coordinating meetings of individuals, locations and resources of the City. Electronic media may not be used for any other prohibited purpose, including illegal activities and messages which may constitute discrimination or harassment under state or federal law. This prohibition applies at all times, whether the employee is on working time or not.

The City computers, software and data stored on the computer or network are City property. Employees shall have no expectation that the information they convey, create, file, or store in such media will be confidential or private. The City reserves the right to access such information for any purpose at any time. All software that resides on any of the City computers must be licensed by the City.

Access and privileges on the City of Martinez's media systems are administered by the Information Systems Specialist. Department heads are responsible for designating appropriate system access for employees as required to perform the responsibilities of their position.

Information or files deleted from electronic media may not have been permanently deleted from the system. It is possible to recover deleted computer files. Employees should note that data files, messages and information on City computers, servers, or voice mail may be subject to disclosure, either as "public records", or pursuant to discovery in litigation. The public may perceive a user's e-mail as official City policy. Users must avoid being drawn into discussions where disclaimers like "this represents my personal opinion and not that of my department or the City of Martinez" need to be used. When using e-mail, the Internet and other on-line services provided by the City of Martinez, users should remember that they represent the City. Do not make statements of personal opinion which may be misinterpreted as official policy.

Computer Policy

Security

The City's computer systems require that each user have a unique identity referred to as a "User-ID", protected by a password, to gain access to the system. An employee's password and User-ID are unique, identifying him/her as the user accessing a particular workstation or PC. The employee is responsible for any modifications or access to system information made using his/her User-ID. Changes to files are logged with the identification of the person who signed on. Therefore, it is imperative that users do not share User-ID's and passwords.

Users are asked to "logout" from their network sessions at the end of the workday. This eliminates unnecessary access vulnerabilities and eases "off hours" network maintenance. Logging out will also assure a more complete system back-up.

Supervisors, Department Heads, as well as the Information Systems staff of the City reserve the right to enter, search, monitor, copy and/or retrieve the computer files, voice mail, e-mail, or any type of electronic file of any employee, without notice, for business purposes, including, but not limited to, investigating theft, disclosure of confidential business or proprietary information, use of the system for personal reasons or for any other purpose unrelated to City's business, or for monitoring work flow or productivity.

Use of e-mail Services

The e-mail system is not intended to be used as a storage system. Employees should transfer any files which may be considered as "public records" or files they will need in the course of their daily work into other formats for future use or filing, delete the e-mail messages and free up space on the mail server. All electronic mail communications will be purged from the system every 45 calendar days. Purged electronic mail will not be retrievable. Forging electronic messages or attempting to transmit any messages in which the origination is deliberately misleading is prohibited.

Online Information Service Use

The City has no control over the content of messages or information postings on the Internet or on-line services. Creating, transmitting, uploading or downloading anything that may be construed as harassment or disparagement of others based on race, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, religious or political beliefs is strictly prohibited.

Virus Notification

Users must notify the Information Systems Specialist of any computer virus infections on City computers. Users are encouraged to obtain help from the Information Systems Specialist in the use of the latest virus protection technology.

Help Desk

Users are strongly encouraged to seek help from the Information Systems Specialist to obtain technical assistance rather than attempting to correct computer malfunctions. Sometimes additional damage can result when well meaning attempts by users to correct problems go awry.

Telephone Policy

Voice Mail

Although employees have passwords that restrict access to voice mail messages left for them on the system, employees should be aware that the City can access any messages stored in the voice mail system. Therefore, employees may not assume that such messages are confidential.

Violations of Policy

Violations of these policies will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and may result in disciplinary action, up to and including discharge.