Rep. Negele (800-382-9841) has introduced HB 1272 concerning the situation where publication in a local paper is required but the paper fails to actually follow through with a requested publication. Under the proposed legislation, the local governmental entity could still proceed if it posts printed notice in three prominent places in the political subdivision or on the local government’s website in a location where the notice is easily accessible.
I’m in favor of this. I’ve seen a situation where government action had to be delayed for several weeks because a local paper agreed to publish the notice but due to a clerical error failed to actually make the publication. (What made it worse is that the publication was required in two papers, and it was a much lower circulation paper — so the utility of the notice was questionable at best).
I think we’re getting close to the day when publication of legal notices in the newspaper is going to become obsolete. How many people read the legal notices in the newspaper but don’t have Internet access? Seems like it would be simple enough for the State to create “legalnotices.in.gov/county” for a one-stop repository of legal notices. The cost of the publication is one thing, but what can really be irritating is when the paper has a long lead time to get notices into the paper.
This bill doesn’t go anywhere near that far, but it’s a nice failsafe for the governmental entity that did its part to provide proper notice through the newspaper(s).
Doug: You need to read the HSPA study on public notices. And then look at the analytic data for Gateway, the state website with all of the budget data, etc. Few people go there when you consider it is a statewide database. People still read newspapers. Our circulation has been gaining the past three years. But, I am biased!
Any idea where to find the study? I found reference to a 2013 State Tax and Financing Policy study on public notices that the HSPA apparently helped with, but the final report (PDF) didn’t note any findings or recommendations from that particular body.