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Policies

Website Policy

Thank you for visiting the official website of the City of Mission Viejo. We are providing this notice to explain our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used by the City of Mission Viejo.

Conditions of Use

By visiting the City of Mission Viejo website, users agree that they will not use the website for any unlawful activity, or use it in any way that would violate the terms and conditions of use. This website is governed and construed by the laws of the State of California. Any use of the website shall comply with all City, State and Federal laws and regulations. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this website are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under state law and federal statutes including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act. We monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or to otherwise cause damage to the City's website. Anyone using this website expressly consents to such monitoring.

Communications to the City via this website shall in no way be deemed to constitute legal or official notice to the City of Mission Viejo, its agencies, officers, employees, representatives or agents with respect to any existing, pending or future claim or cause of action against the City of Mission Viejo or any of its agencies, officers, employees, representatives or agents where notice is required by Federal, State or local law. Nor shall communications to the City via this website be deemed to constitute legal or official notice for any other purpose.

Changes are made periodically to City documents, including the Municipal Code, City Council documents, City regulations, guidelines, and schedules, and these changes may or may not be reflected in the materials or information present on this website. Additionally, because the site is frequently under development, materials and information may be deleted, modified or moved to a different part of the website without advance notice.

Under no circumstances shall the City of Mission Viejo be liable for any actions taken or omissions made from reliance on any information contained herein from whatever source nor shall the City Mission Viejo be liable for any other consequences from any such reliance.

The City of Mission Viejo is neither responsible nor liable for any viruses or other contamination of your system nor for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions arising out of your use of this website or with respect to the material contained on this website, including without limitation, any material posted on the website. This website and all materials contained on it are distributed and transmitted "as is" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including without limitation, warranties of title or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. The City of Mission Viejo is not responsible for any special, indirect, incidental or consequential damages that may arise from the use of, or the inability to use, the website and/or the materials contained on the website whether the materials contained on the website are provided by the City of Mission Viejo, or a third party.

Links from City of Mission Viejo Website

The City of Mission Viejo permits the establishment of links to external websites on the City's official website solely in conformance with this website policy. In the establishment and maintenance of its official website, the City does not intend in any manner to create nor does it create a forum or other means by which public discourse, exchange of opinions, or discussion on issues of any nature may occur. The City is not responsible for, does not endorse, and cannot assure the accuracy of information on these outside websites.

Organizations wishing to establish external links on the City's website must submit a request to the webmaster. The request must contain all information necessary to verify the facts as stated and is necessary to determine whether the proposed link is in compliance with this policy. The City Manager will review the merits of the requested external link, keeping in mind the criteria and examples listed below, to determine whether the link serves the overall purpose of the City's website. A request will not be denied because of a viewpoint espoused by the person or entity.

At its discretion the City may provide links to external sites that fall into one of the following categories:

  • Other governmental agencies. 
  • Utilities
  • Public and private, bona fide educational institutions.
  • Organizations as defined in the Internal Revenue Code §501(c)(6). 
  • Any association located in or managing a location which has received a historical site designation by the Mission Viejo City Council pursuant to the California
  • Public Resources Code 5020 et. seq. 
  • Elected Public Officials.
  • Transportation Agencies

The City of Mission Viejo reserves the right to: (1) deny an external link request to any person, business or organization when it is determined, following review of a request, that the entity or organization for which request is made does not meet the criteria set forth in this policy; and/or (2) deny an external link request to any person, business or organization which fails to provide all required information, or fails to provide truthful information.

Some examples of the type of websites that the City's website will not provide an external link to websites:

  • Promoting or exhibiting hate, bias, discrimination, pornography; libelous or otherwise defamatory content;
  • Associated with, sponsored by or serving a candidate for elected office, any political party or organization supporting or seeking to defeat any candidate for elective office or any ballot proposal;
  • Associated with political organizations or other organizations advocating a position on a local, state or federal issue;
  • Furthering the agenda of a political organization or candidate running for office;
  • Violating any of the City's equal opportunity or norms and values policies;
  • That are individual or personal home pages.

Removal of External Link from City Website

The City reserves the right to immediately and without notice to any person or organization: (1) remove any external link if the nature of the organization or business to which the link relates no longer complies with the City's external link Policy; (2) discontinue an external link at any time if entities' website provides or promotes hate, bias, discrimination, pornography, false, slanderous, illegal, political (see above examples of websites the City will not link to), or incorrect information at any time; or (3) to revise this policy without prior notice when to do so is deemed to be in the best interests of the City of Mission Viejo. 

Location and Appearance of External Links

The City reserves the right to determine how and where External links will appear on its website; i.e. what page the link appears on and where the link is placed on the page.

Copyright/Trademark

The City Seal, brand and banner are trademarks of the City of Mission Viejo. Any use of the materials stored on the City's website is prohibited without the written permission of the City of Mission Viejo. The City of Mission Viejo retains all intellectual property rights including copyrights on all text, graphic images and other content. This means that the following acts or activities are prohibited without prior, written permission from the City of Mission Viejo: (1) modification and/or re-use of text, images or other website content from a City server; (2) distribution of the City's website content; or (3) "mirroring" the City's information on a non-City server.

Third Party Materials

Some materials and information used on the City of Mission Viejo's website were generated by third parties who have consented to the City's use or placement of such materials on this site. These materials are owned by those parties. Use of these third party materials for any purpose is prohibited. Persons seeking to use or modify third party materials for any purpose should contact the owner of such materials directly. These materials include icons and graphics used in links to other organizations' sites, as well as various items of general content.

Disclaimer of Endorsement

Some of the links made available to you through the City of Mission Viejo's website will allow you to leave the City's site. Please be aware that the Internet sites available through these links, and the materials that you may find at those sites are not provided by, endorsed by or under the control of the City of Mission Viejo. Therefore, the City cannot and does not make any representation to you about these sites or the materials available on the sites. The fact that you may be able to access these additional sites from the City's website is not an endorsement or recommendation to you by the City of any of these sites or any material found there. The City is providing these links only as a convenience to you, and your access to these additional sites is done at your own risk.

General Disclaimer

The materials and information contained on or obtained from this website, are distributed and transmitted "AS IS" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including without limitation, warranties of title or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Information contained on this website, including information obtained from external links thereon, is provided without any representation of any kind as to accuracy or content and should be verified by the user. The City of Mission Viejo is not responsible for any general, direct, special, indirect, incidental or consequential damages that may arise from the use of, or the inability to use, the website and/or the materials contained on the site whether the materials contained on the website are provided by the City of Mission Viejo or a third party.

Indemnification/Hold Harmless

By using the City's website, user agrees to indemnify or hold harmless the City of Mission Viejo for any occurrence resulting from an act of user's use of the City's website. The City will take all reasonable precautions to safeguard the confidentiality of user information, but is not liable for any injury caused by the disclosure of that information, whether caused by security breach, accident, inadvertence, or any other act resulting in disclosure.

Links to the City of Mission Viejo's Website

Advance permission to link to the City's Website is not necessary. However, the organization linking to the City of Mission Viejo's website should understand that content and internal web links may change at any time without notice.

Entities and individuals shall not link to the City's website nor capture pages within frames and present the City's website content as its own, or otherwise misrepresent this website's content or misinform users about the origin or ownership of its content.

Privacy Statement

The City of Mission Viejo ("City") is committed to protecting the privacy of the individuals utilizing the City's Website; however, personal information submitted to the City's Website may be subject to disclosure pursuant to various California laws, including, but not limited to, the California Civil Discovery Act of 1986 and the California Public Records Act. The City may share such information with other agencies if: (1) the information relates to that agency; (2) to protect the interests of others; (3) to protect and defend the rights or property of the City; or (4) as otherwise provided by law.

The City's Website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that the City is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by the City's Website.

The City of Mission Viejo does not use its Website to:

  • Collect personal information for commercial marketing. The City will not send you unsolicited email regarding any commercial offers or advertisements at any time.
  • Create individual profiles with the information provided by users of this site, nor does it give such personal information to third parties or private organizations. The City does not track personal information about individuals and their visits.

The City of Mission Viejo does use its Website to:

  • Collect personal information for the purpose of responding to a user's request or input, or to complete an online transaction. If a user chooses to provide the City with personal information, such as sending an e-mail to a City employee or by filling out and submitting an online form located on the City's Website, the City may use that information to respond to the user's message and to assist in obtaining information the user may have requested. The City treats e-mails submitted by a user the same way it treats letters to the City. The City will not share e-mail addresses submitted by a user through the City's website.
  • Provide electronic commerce capabilities, should a user provide any personal information and/or payment information while using the City's Website. Such information may be collected, processed and disclosed to complete an online transaction and for record-keeping for such activities as billing, permits, licenses and other business-related purposes.
  • Collect usage statistics for site management, such as assessing what information is of most and least interest, determining technical design specifications, and identifying system performance issues. The information does not identify you personally. The following information about your visit is collected:
  • The Internet domain and/or IP address from which you access the City's Website;
  • The type of browser and operating system used to access the City's Website;
  • The date and time of the visit;
  • The pages visited; and
  • If you link to the City's Website from another website, the address of that Website.

The City's Website may transfer information to your computer through cookies or other technology. The use of cookies or similar technology is an industry standard and does not personally identify users, although they do identify a user's computer. Cookies or similar technology can make the Internet more useful by storing information about your preferences on a particular site. If preferred, you can configure your browser to refuse cookies. However, you may not be able to take full advantage of the City's website if you do so.

Security Statement

The City Website utilizes encryption technology.  However, the user should not assume that information submitted to the City Web server would be treated as confidential (See above Privacy Statement). If a user submits information to the City's server through a web page containing visible indicators of active encryption technology, the City will take all reasonable precautions to safeguard the confidentiality of such information.

Social Media Policy

The intended purpose for establishing a social media presence is to solely and specifically disseminate the "City's governmental voice" rather than to create a public forum of any type or designation. This means disseminating information about the City's mission, services, meetings, and current issues to members of the public.

The City has an overriding interest and expectation in solely deciding what is "spoken" on behalf of the City on City social media sites. The City intends for its use of any social media site to relate solely to matters of City business and does not intend to create a general public forum. The City has an overriding interest and expectation in protecting the integrity of the information posted on its social media sites and the content that is attributed to the City or its officials.

For purposes of this policy, "social media" is understood to be content created by individuals, using accessible, expandable, and upgradable publishing technologies, through and on the Internet.  Examples of social media include but are not limited to, Facebook, Instagram blogs, RSS, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Flicker. For purposes of this policy, "comments" include information, articles, pictures, videos or any other form of communicative content posted on a City social media site.

The establishment and use by any City department of City social media sites are subject to approval by the City Manager or his/her designees. All City social media sites shall be administered by the Information Technology Department or designees. The Director of Community Relations/City Clerk is responsible for and will monitor content on City social media sites to ensure adherence to both the City's Social Media Policy and the interest and communication goals of the City.

City social media sites should make clear that they are owned, maintained and administered by the City and that they follow the City's Social Media Policy.

  • City social media sites shall be consistently branded including use of the City seal or logo to communicate a clear association with the City, shall include contact information, shall link to the official City website (for in- depth information, forms, documents or other online information necessary to conduct business with the City), and should link to other City social media sites.

City social media sites should link back to the official City websites for forms, documents, online services and other information necessary to conduct business with the City.

Only employees who are authorized by Information Technology Department may post on social media sites on behalf of the City. Employees representing the City on social media sites shall conduct themselves at all times as a professional representative of the City and shall comply with all City policies.

The City reserves the right to terminate City social media sites at any time without notice.

The City reserves the right to restrict or remove any content that is deemed in violation of this Social Media Policy general City health, safety and welfare or any applicable law. Any content removed based on these guidelines must be retained by the Information Technology Department for a period of (90) calendar days, including the time, date and identity of the poster when available, and reason for removal of content.

These guidelines must be displayed to users or made available by hyperlink on City websites.

The City will approach the use of social media tools as consistently as possible, enterprise wide.

The City's website will remain the City's primary and dominant internet presence.

All City social media sites shall adhere to federal, state and municipal laws, regulations and policies.

City social media sites are subject to the California Public Records Act. Any content maintained in a social media format that is related to City business, including a list of subscribers, posted communication, and communication submitted for posting, may be a public record subject to public disclosure. Notice of this will be posted on all City websites.

  • City social media content, including comments, pictures, or other material, containing any of the following are hereby determined to be detrimental to the purpose of the City's social media sites and shall not be allowed and are subject to removal and/or restriction by the City and its designee:
    • Content that does not reasonably pertain to City business;
    • Profane, obscene, violent, or pornographic content and/or language;
    • Content that promotes, fosters, or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, age, religion, gender, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law;
    • Defamatory or personal attacks; any uncertainty defaults to removal;
    • Threats of physical violence or any other harmful act directed to any person, or persons, group, or organization; Police reporting shall be done as regards all specific threats to person or property;
    • Sexual content or links to sexual content;
    • Solicitations of commerce not related to City business, including but not limited to, advertising of a business or product for sale;
    • Conduct or encouragement of illegal activity;
    • Content not related to the subject being discussed, including random or unintelligible comments;
    • Content in support of, or in opposition to, any political campaigns or ballot measures;
    • Personal matters;
    • Information that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems;
    • Content that violates a legal ownership interest of any other party; and
    • Content that is in violation of any federal, state, or county or municipal law.

Comments on topics or issues not within the jurisdictional purview of the City may be removed.

Employees representing the City government via City social media sites must conduct themselves at all times professionally, respectfully and calmly, as a representative of the City and in accordance with all City policies.

This Social Media Policy may be revised at any time.

Comments containing any of the following inappropriate forms of content shall not be permitted on City social media sites and are subject to removal and/or restriction by the Public Relations Director/City Clerk or his/her designees:

  • Comments not related to the original topic, including random or unintelligible comments;
  • Profane, obscene, or pornographic content and/or language;
  • Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, age, religion, gender, or national origin;
  • Defamatory or personal attacks;
  • Threats to any person or organization;
  • Comments in support of, or in opposition to, any political campaigns or ballot measures;

Additional Policies

Web Accessibility Guidelines

The City of Mission Viejo is committed to providing equal access to its electronic information technologies and services for all residents, visitors and business customers. As the World Wide Web has become an essential means by which we provide information to and conduct transactions with our community, our goal is to provide information and services in ways that work effectively for all.
It is one of our goals to continually improve the Web site to achieve compliance with the latest standards in functionality and universal accessibility. We follow the federal ADA Section 508 rules.

Tools for Blind & Visually Impaired Users

Adobe, the makers of Acrobat and Acrobat Reader, have developed tools to assist blind and visually impaired users. Please visit the Adobe Accessibility area for more information. Please note that the tools designed to create simple HTML documents easily read by standard speech-synthesis software will not retain the graphic images or text formatting of an original Adobe PDF.

Additional Applications

Some of the services and information posted on City of Mission Viejo website require that a user download and install additional applications as part of their browser software. The basic versions of these applications are offered, at no cost, on the vendors' Web sites. These applications include:

Adobe Acrobat Reader - The City uses Adobe Acrobat to create Portable Document Format (PDF) files to provide online access to City documents in their original formatting. There are several converter applications available online that will convert PDF documents into a variety of alternate document formats, including simple HTML.