Our original headline for this story was “Newspaper notice off to good start in 2022.” But late last night we learned that Florida — a state that last year passed a progressive bill paving the way for the eventual migration of statutory notice to newspaper websites — was in play once again.
We haven’t had time to digest the 40-page bill, but it’s clearly designed to undo the work that went into last year’s historic legislation by moving public notice to government websites. The committee bill passed out of the Judiciary Committee this morning with GOP backing on a straight party-line vote.
It’s Shaping up to Be a Good Year for Public Notice
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.
Public Officials Dismissed Over Notice Issues
The failure to publish proper notice is rarely punished, so it was surprising to see local officials in Maine and Illinois recently relieved of their positions as a result of breakdowns in the public notice process. The sacked officials compounded their problems with other missteps, but notice issues were at the center of both dismissals.
In Maine, Stephen Beckert was removed from his position as chairman of the Eliot Planning Board on Sept. 14 after an investigation found the board consistently failed to publish newspaper notice of its public hearings. Beckert’s dismissal was the culmination of three years of conflict with a handful of local residents, particularly citizen watchdogs Michele and Jay Meyer (pictured above). During that period, the Meyers regularly attended Planning Board meetings and “became involved in several high-profile board cases and actions,” according to the Portsmouth (N.H.) Herald.
Wisconsin, Missouri on High Alert as Public Notice Bills Churn Through State Legislatures
More than 120 public notice bills have been introduced in at least 37 different states through the first week of March, raising varying levels of concern among newspaper publishers and state press associations around the country. The only states where the danger signs are flashing red, however, appear to be Wisconsin and Missouri.