See the post-election postscript at the end of this post. 
If we had a category in our annual Public Notice Journalism Contest for best lede, Jack Dura of the Bismarck Tribune would probably win with this one: “Races for official county newspaper don’t usually headline election years, but a few papers around North Dakota could flip in this cycle.”
It turns out that in North Dakota, when a county has at least two newspapers local voters often get to decide which one is designated to serve as the official publisher of notice. It appears to be the only state that designates official newspapers by ballot.
Newspaper Notice Helps Save County’s Oldest Grave
Theophilus Hunter was a big deal in Wake County, North Carolina, and in Raleigh, the county seat. A Revolutionary War leader who owned a popular lodge in the area and held official posts in both the city and county, Hunter is considered a local founding father by some residents. When he died in 1798, he was buried in an area that is now close to the N.C. State University campus.
It will remain there for now, along with the 17 unmarked graves, as a result of a public notice published in Raleigh’s News & Observer.
Newspaper Notice Saves County “Tens of Thousands of Dollars”
CVS Caremark recently charged Wapello County, Iowa, $198.22 for a bottle of generic antipsychotic pills dispensed by a local pharmacy. CVS reimbursed the pharmacy just $5.73 for the pills.
We know about this enormous markup because one of the owners of the pharmacy, Mark Frahm, read a public notice in the local Ottumwa Courier and did some sleuthing. Frahm’s investigation ultimately had a significant impact that continues to reverberate. Locally, it led the county jail to drop CVS as its pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) and purchase meds directly from Frahm’s South Side Drug. The move is “expected to save the county tens of thousands of dollars,” according to the Courier.
County Learns to Rely on its Newspaper, Not a Government Website, For Public Notice
The proof that public notices published in newspapers are more effective than those that are posted on government websites doesn’t get any more direct and conclusive than this.
Last year, the jail in Ford County, Ill. needed a new generator. The sheriff put a bid-solicitation notice on the county website. It isn’t clear whether the notice got a response, but the sheriff later asked the county’s Public Building Commission to approve a $72,576 bid for a generator. The Commission initially approved the expenditure but rescinded the approval when it learned the sheriff hadn’t published a notice in a local newspaper, as state law requires.
Broadcasters Ask FCC to Move Notices to Their Websites
Late last year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a proposal that would, among other things, eliminate its current rules requiring broadcasters to publish notices in local newspapers when they file various license applications. PNRC filed comments opposing the change.
More than nine months later, the agency still hasn’t issued a final ruling on its proposal.
But the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) isn’t content to wait. In August, the Washington, D.C.-based trade association filed an ex parte notice suggesting an alternative: If the FCC decides not to kill all public notice when its members file license applications — which is NAB’s preference — then the agency should replace newspaper notice with a rule permitting “broadcasters to make brief on-air announcements that refer audiences to websites with additional information.”
Newspaper Notices Activate Opposition to Oil Drilling Proposal
A privately held oil company with an interest in limiting public input on its requests to change New Mexico’s drilling rules faces opposition from local environmentalists who learned about the company’s latest proposal from notices published in their local papers.
Texas-based Hilcorp Energy Co. is petitioning the New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission (OCC) to allow it to double the number of wells it operates in San Juan and Rio Arriba counties. Local activist Mike Eisenfeld learned about the proposal when he read a public notice in the Farmington Daily Times in late August, according to NMPolitics.net. The notice also ran in the Rio Grande Sun on the Friday before Labor Day, and “opponents were left scrambling to organize and formally object to the move within a seven-day deadline,” San Juan County cattle farmer Don Schreiber told the Sante Fe New Mexican.
U.S. Senator: “Paper is not antiquated. It’s reliable.”
As policymakers have long understood, one of the key elements of a valid public notice is archivability. Notices must be capable of being permanently stored in their original, unaltered form to serve as historical records for the judicial system, scholars and historians. Newspapers do a good job at that. Websites do not.
Late last year, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., introduced a bill that reminds us of the important role historical records still play in sustaining our democracy. Sen. Lankford’s Secure Elections Act, which is designed to harden U.S. defenses against interference in federal elections, was co-sponsored by senators from both parties spanning the ideological spectrum; it appears to have widespread support within the upper chamber.
Newspaper Notice Drives Interest in Used Fire Truck
Who could possibly want to buy a used fire truck with a rusted frame, leaking fuel tank, no rear seats and broken springs in all four of its tires?
Much to the surprise of a new fire chief on Cape Cod, there are many potential buyers and they learned about the availability of the truck from a small public notice in the Sandwich (Mass.) Enterprise. The notice sought bids of at least $5,000 for the Sandwich Fire Department’s 2007 Sutphen Fire Engine; it was published 11 days ago in the Enterprise by Fire Chief John J. Burke.
How Newspaper Notice is Supposed to Work
When the Board of Elections in majority-black Randolph County, Georgia introduced a proposal earlier this month to close seven of the county’s nine polling places, many residents were angry. Some even accused the Board of trying to hide the proposal.
The truth is less damning: Even if the Board wanted to hide the plan, it would have been prevented from doing so by Georgia law, which required the county agency to publish two notices about it in a local newspaper. And the notices worked exactly as the law intended, drawing widespread attention to the proposal. In fact, it briefly received national attention, with many characterizing the plan as a Republican effort to suppress the African-American vote before this fall’s election. Nevertheless, when local activists accused the Board of a cover-up, some national media outlets took the bait. For instance, here’s how the Washington Post described the notice process:
Notice Again at Issue in Battle Over Arkansas Hog Farm
In December 2012, residents of Newton County, Arkansas were shocked to learn that the state’s Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) had approved a permit to operate a hog farm on the banks of Big Creek, a tributary on the Buffalo National River. To learn about the permit application they would have had to visit ADEQ’s website, where notice about it had been published for 30 days that summer. The notice was not published in a local newspaper.
The agency received no comments about the application. It was approved a week after notice was posted on its website. The process was so secretive that even the Buffalo National River staff and the National Park Service didn’t know about it.