A great deal of bad legislation died when 15 more state legislatures adjourned in May, including bills in five states that would have removed all or large segments of public notice advertising from newspapers.
The most significant legislation to expire was a bill in Missouri that was close to passage and would have shifted foreclosure notices from newspapers to mortgage-trustee websites. Missouri House Bill 1651 and its Senate companion were both voted out of committee following hearings earlier this year, but neither got to the floor for a vote before the legislature packed it in for the year in mid-May.
More Proof That Even in Big Cities, Many Still Don’t Have Access to the Internet
Sarah Bowman is one of the young environmental reporters at the Indianapolis Star who wrote the IDEM story discussed in the post below.
About a week before the IDEM article was published, Bowman wrote another story about a state agency proposal to establish a bobcat hunting season in Indiana. She was surprised when she began receiving phone calls from readers who wanted to know where and when the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) would be holding a public hearing on its proposal. After all, her story about the plan had been published that morning and it included a graphic featuring those details.
More Newspapers Should Do This
The Indianapolis Star published a story today about the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) proposal to move the notices it is required to publish under the Clean Air Act from newspapers to its lightly visited website. The article by Emily Hopkins and Sarah Bowman may be the best reporting we’ve ever seen squarely addressing the subject of whether public notice belongs in newspapers or on government websites. In fact, it may be the only reporting we’ve ever seen on that issue.
Jim Lockwood Elevates the Art of Public Notice Journalism
Examining the public notice display in newspapers, their tombstone layout and dry legalese may not appear to be riveting journalism. But scratch beneath the surface and you may find a treasure trove of great stories.
Just ask Jim Lockwood, a reporter at the Scranton (Pa.) Times-Tribune, who has won numerous awards for stories gleaned from perusing the public notices in his own newspaper, a practice he started early in his career as a reporter in New Jersey. Public notice advertisements are Lockwood’s go-to resource for everyday reporting.
Foreclosure Bill on Move in Missouri; Some Notices Eliminated in Kentucky
A bill that would allow mortgage trustees in Missouri to publish foreclosure notices on websites rather than newspapers picked up momentum yesterday afternoon when it received a favorable vote in the House Legislative Oversight Committee. The next step is the House floor.
SB 909 is widely believed to be an effort by trustees in this nonjudicial foreclosure state to profit off the notices they are required to publish before auctioning delinquent properties to the highest bidders. Two of the largest trustee law firms in Missouri have been the primary proponents of the legislation.
Michigan Approves Controversial Nestle Proposal Despite Public Opposition
Q: When does a vote of 80,945 to 75 result in a win for the 75?
A: When a state agency gets to cast the deciding ballot.
Although it wasn’t technically a vote, Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) last month approved Nestle Water’s controversial request to pump more groundwater for its Ice Mountain bottling plant despite that lopsided margin. In fact, NPR reports that the 80,945 public comments MDEQ received opposing the proposal set a record.
Town Threatens to Move Notices Over News Coverage
When politicians threaten to take public notice out of newspapers, it’s dog bites man. But when they make the same threat and explicitly frame it as punishment for negative coverage, it’s man bites dog.
And what happened recently in Phillipsburg, N.J., was definitely man bites dog.
The Town Council in Phillipsburg introduced a proposal last month to move the city’s notices from The Express-Times of Lehigh Valley to other newspapers in nearby towns with lower circulations and different coverage areas.
Here’s how The Express-Times characterized the effort:
Small West Virginia Town Has a Secrecy Habit
If a contest was held for the least transparent city government in the U.S., the small town of Williamson, West Virginia would have to be considered a strong contender.
Williamson’s latest turn to the dark side came last week, when its city council held a “special meeting” to pass the first draft of its 2018-19 budget. According to Travis Crum of the Williamson Daily News, the council approved the budget and submitted it to the State Auditor’s Office “after receiving no public input and holding little discussion amongst themselves” about the fiscal plan.
Here’s more from Crum, a deft purveyor of understatement:
Legislative Front Still Calm
The first quarter has ended and the legislative front remains relatively calm. Missouri is still the only state in immediate peril of passing a major public notice bill, but even there newspapers are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel; the two measures that have given public notice advocates in the Show Me State cause for concern didn’t budge last month.
Many bad public notice bills still litter the committees of the 30+ state legislatures that haven’t adjourned yet, but none appear to have any momentum. Nevertheless, several minor bills — some that add newspaper notice and a few that reduce it — have passed so far this year. Here’s the round up.
Missouri Only State in Present Public Notice Peril
An election year? A surge in passion for government transparency? A growing admiration among state legislators for their local newspapers? Whatever the reason, the state of public notice in the U.S. remains unseasonably calm for this time of the year.
Lots of public notice-related legislation has been introduced — PNRC is tracking more than 200 bills — but so far most of it hasn’t gone anywhere. There have been pockets of activity over the last month, however. Here are the highlights.