be friends with hillsborough county

Looks like Hillsborough County’s Budgeting Department has jumped into social media:

Everybody leads busy lives these days, and it can be difficult to fit in time to attend a County Budget Public Hearing. That’s why, this year, we’ve added even more ways to comment on the Budget and to keep up with County Budget discussions. Feel free to visit our Facebook page, send a comment to our Blogger site, phone in a comment to Google Call, and subscribe to short updates via Twitter. We want to hear from you…and we want to stay in touch.

Yep – take a look at the Hillsborough County, Florida Official Citizen Participation Blog, get updates from the “official tweets for Hillsborough County, FL government,” and become a fan of the Official Facebook Page for Hillsborough County, FL Government.  Although it’s not specifically listed on the budget department’s page, Hillsborough County also has a YouTube account.

As for our participation in the blog, we are allowed to comment, although it is moderated.  They don’t want any one of us to simply spout off about a particular commissioner or staff member:

While Hillsborough County welcomes and values comments from citizens about any issue or concern in this forum, the comments made to this blog are moderated. To ensure your comments are posted, they should be made in a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect and in a manner to help resolve the issue presented, no matter which side of the issue you are on

Comments directed personally against a Commissioner or staff member will not be posted. Nor will comments including language that includes sensitive materials including, but not limited to, illegal activities, gambling, sexually explicit materials, weapons, drugs, violence or materials that include inappropriate language, profanity, obscenity, racial, ethnic or discriminatory comments, defamatory statements or otherwise inappropriate content to include statements such as partisan political positions, religious positions and other statements.

But they really do want your comments, and are even responding a bit.