SLO County Supervisor Lynn Compton blocked constituents on Facebook. Is it legal?
A San Luis Obispo County supervisor running for re-election is blocking some constituents on Facebook, but she is within her rights to do that, the county counsel confirmed.
Lynn Compton, who has represented District 4 on the Board of Supervisors for seven years, confirmed that she blocked people from her Facebook page — which prevents people from seeing or commenting on her posts.
“I have blocked them when they incessantly personally attack me,” Compton said in a statement to The Tribune. “As long as people are respectful, they are free to disagree with me and I will have a conversation with them and look forward to it.”
Compton is running against Arroyo Grande City Council member Jimmy Paulding for the District 4 Board of Supervisors seat. They both ran for the seat in 2018, and Compton won by only 60 votes.
Compton converted her Facebook page to a campaign account several months ago and sent a notification to her followers to alert them to the change, she said.
Elected officials cannot block people from social media accounts related to government business, because those accounts are considered public forums.
In 2021, former San Luis Obispo mayor Heidi Harmon blocked constituents from Instagram and Facebook. In December, the city required her to unblock those residents because she posted about city business on the account.
Elected officials can, however, block people from campaign social media accounts, according to county counsel Rita Neal.
In 2021, a court ruled that campaign accounts are not considered public forums, so when candidates post or block people from those accounts, they “are acting in a private, rather than government, capacity,” Neal said.
“As a result, a candidate’s private campaign page isn’t subject to the same First Amendment restrictions as a public government page,” Neal said, so Compton can block people from her campaign page.
Compton noted that she will post about her actions as a county supervisor as part of her campaign.
“I’m running for office as a supervisor based on my past supervisorial decisions and actions,” Compton said in the statement. “There is no way not to talk about my history and the things that I have accomplished that I am proud of, as a supervisor, and why I feel suited to run again.”
Who did Compton block on Facebook?
Compton said she blocked Sandee Hunt-Burns, who runs social media for Paulding’s campaign. Hunt-Burns has also written columns for The Tribune.
Compton created and posted a Go Fund Me account for the family of Carly Krauk, a Nipomo teenager killed in a house fire last year. Compton said she knew Carly.
On Facebook, Hunt-Burns called the Go Fund Me “performative activism,” and said that Compton made the Go Fund Me to distract constituents from “her Tefft traffic failures.” She said Compton should have spread the word about a community-made fundraiser, instead of starting one herself.
“Fishing for votes off of a death is just reprehensible. It is a VERY fine line to walk when you’re helping tell the story in support after a tragedy. I’ve done it for years in working with victims and their families. The idea is to support them and help change the world, not say, ‘Look at me and how nice I am for my good deed,’” Hunt-Burns wrote in her post.
Compton later blocked Hunt-Burns from her account, and told The Tribune the posts were “sickening” and “unconscionable.”
Hunt-Burns was not impressed that Compton blocked her on Facebook.
“For the last eight years, Lynn Compton has avoided taking action on the issues that matter to SLO County residents,” Hunt-Burns said in an email to the Tribune. “Blocking her constituents on Facebook shows that she is unwilling to even have a conversation with her constituents.”
Nipomo resident Heidi DiSalvo also said that Compton blocked her on Facebook.
“When a constituent is blocked from voicing an opinion, correcting a falsehood or presenting a fact, that’s just not right,” DiSalvo said.
Compton did not confirm or deny if she blocked DiSalvo.
“I’m not really sure it’s anybody’s business who I block,” Compton said. “I have the legal right to do so.”
DiSalvo never followed Compton on Facebook but would occasionally comment on her posts.
Recently, Compton posted that her opponent, Jimmy Paulding, voted to raise City Council salaries. But DiSalvo said Compton missed the context of Paulding’s vote.
Paulding voted twice against drafts of an ordinance to raise salaries for the Arroyo Grande mayor and City Council, but then later voted with the rest of the council to pass the salary increase in December 2019.
DiSalavo commented on Compton’s post explaining that Paulding voted against the salary increase twice before voting to pass it, and posted a video of Paulding at a City Council meeting saying that he didn’t think the city could afford higher salaries.
Compton responded to DiSalvo’s comment, saying that the final vote is the one that counts, “but perhaps you don’t understand that,” Compton wrote.
DiSalvo fired back, noting that Compton changed her mind about the Phillips 66 proposal to build a railway line that would transport crude oil to its Nipomo refinery — first voting to support it and then voting against it.
DiSalvo noted that Compton voted against the railway line only after Supervisor John Peschong recused himself from the vote, and she and Supervisor Debbie Arnold no longer held the majority vote.
DiSalvo thinks Compton blocked her after their Facebook debate, she said.
DiSalvo lives in Nipomo, an unincorporated area of the county that relies more on its Board of Supervisors representation than cities do.
“We are her constituents, and we believe that we should have the right to an opinion,” DiSalvo said. “The only representation we have is her, and I feel that she has not represented us.”
DiSalvo said that Compton should not block her constituents on Facebook.
“She is restricting our access to her, and the truth getting out there involving this campaign,” DiSalvo said. “If she’s elected again, it’s going to continue. She doesn’t want to hear from us.”
