Don't weaken public notice requirements

Connecticut legislators are considering proposals this month that would allow cities and towns to stop notifying taxpayers of major changes in public policy and local budgets.

Today, governments must place notices in local newspapers about proposed zoning changes, tax increases, the process for accepting bids on major contracts and other matters.

It is part of a broader assault this year on the public’s right to know that includes Gov. Dannel Malloy’s proposal to consolidate independent watchdog agencies under his personal control, a bill that would make secret information about criminals who are pardoned, and a plan to charge citizens a fee just for looking at police reports that are by law public information.

All taxpayers need to do is read the front sections of their local newspaper to realize why those small-type legal notices in the back of it are important. Malloy earmarking $115 million in tax incentives and subsidies to the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, whose CEO is Connecticut’s richest man at a net worth of $2.5 billion. Municipal officials in jail for taking bribes and steering government contracts to friends and associates.

Like Malloy’s power play with the state’s Freedom of Information Commission, the move to get rid of public notice requirements in newspapers is being pursued under the guise of saving money.

This is disingenuous at best. The cost of maintaining basic public access and transparency in government is pennies on the millions of dollars at stake when bad decisions are made due to lack of public knowledge and participation or outright corruption is perpetrated under the protection of secrecy.

Of course, we have a vested interest in preserving public notices in newspapers. It’s a source of revenue, albeit a small one, that in a small way helps fund our journalism. But it’s also a vital part of protecting the public’s interests.

The purpose of placing a notice in a “mass distribution” publication such as a newspaper is to catch the eye of citizens who don’t know it’s coming. If you are concerned about a zoning change that would allow a fish rendering plant to be built in your town, but don’t know it’s even a possibility, seeing the legal notice about it as you check sports scores and read the classifieds in your morning newspaper serves that purpose. Under the proposed scenario, you’d have to know that it was happening in the first place to know to check your town’s website to find out that it is. Unless we expect people to make a daily habit out of reading their town’s website, an unrealistic expectation of even the most engaged citizen.

The most important aspect of Connecticut’s public notice system is that It injects a third party into the process, generating affidavits that prove proper notice was given. Allowing notices to be placed on town websites would provide no such assurance. It would put the fox in charge of the henhouse.

This editorial first appeared in The New Haven Register.