Just days after announcing his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for secretary of state, South Side Ald. David Moore was admonished by the city Board of Ethics for using the official government 17th Ward Facebook account to campaign for the statewide office.

In a letter written Monday, two days after his formal campaign announcement, the ethics board warned Moore he faced potential fines for mixing posts about his secretary of state candidacy with posts regarding city services and events in his ward.

“This mixing is not permitted under the Governmental Ethics Ordinance,” the board said, citing an advisory opinion on social media use. “Our board’s opinion states that political/campaign content cannot be posted to an official city social media account, in this case, an official ward Facebook page.”

In the letter, obtained by the Tribune, the board ordered Moore to “immediately” take down the political and campaign content he posted to the ward’s Facebook, and create his own political Facebook site without city funds and with a disclaimer that it is not an official city of Chicago account and does not represent the policies of the city or City Council.

Moore, in a statement, said he makes it a point to “abide by the rules” and had taken corrective action. But he also indicated he felt singled out by a policy others on the council ignore.

“We were even told in those (ethics) sessions that we couldn’t use our official title. Over the last year, I saw this being ignored many times,” he said.

“It is my hope that I will not be the only one held to this standard and held accountable. I already made the correction and I hope we can all work together to ensure that everybody follow the rules,” he said.

Moore, 55, in his second term as alderman, is one of five announced candidates vying for the Democratic nomination to replace the retiring Jesse White next year.

In his campaign announcement, he said he wanted to build on White’s legacy of running a secretary of state’s office “with great integrity and character.”

In addition to Moore, other announced Democratic candidates in the race include 3rd Ward Ald. Pat Dowell, former state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia and state Sen. Michael Hastings of Frankfort.