Polk commissioners hold hearing to end public notices in newspapers

Another hearing has been set in Bartow by the County Commission for an order to eliminate a long-standing requirement that public notices and legal announcements regarding county decision-making appear in newspapers.

An ordinance considered Tuesday by commissioners would change that requirement and require notices to be posted on a publicly accessible, county-run website.

Online publication would replace newspaper publication, as now required by Polk County ordinances and other policies, according to agenda items.

In September, a majority of the commission voted against the ordinance after members of the public and newspaper editors opposed the change.

Historically, government boards were required to purchase notices in local newspapers to announce upcoming meetings on topics such as budgets, taxes, and land-use changes, among others.

In 2022, legislation (HB 7049) signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis relaxed this requirement, allowing government agencies the ability to post notices on the website.

“Supporters have made repeated attempts over the years to repeal the requirement that newspapers publish legal notices, arguing that local governments should not be forced to subsidize newspapers,” the California Bar Association said. Florida. He adds: “Newspaper publishers have warned that the loss of advertising revenue associated with reviews will further harm the struggling industry. »

the September vote

Often published in the inside pages of the newspaper, legal notices announce upcoming agenda items at public meetings, tax increases, sheriff’s auctions and many other notifications of pending actions by government agencies.

The change in Polk County met with stiff resistance at the Sept. 10 commissioners’ meeting.

After impassioned pleas from some community members and local media, the Polk County Commission voted 3-2 to continue announcing important public affairs in newspapers.

Commissioners George Lindsey, Martha Santiago and Neil Combee voted against bypassing newspapers by creating the county’s website for public notices. But after the vote, Combee seemed confused. In an exchange between Combee and Lindsey – the president at the time – Lindsey explained: “Today’s decision was to stay the course as we are today. Combee replied, “I believe you, but that’s not what I wanted.” »

Combee’s comments, both before that initial vote and during a recent revision of the agenda, seemed to lean toward posting notices on a county-run web portal. But there was also talk of a possible “hybrid” solution – still newspaper advertising, with the added step of posting information on a county website.

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Reached by text message Friday, Commission Chairman Bill Braswell said he appreciated “the web-based solution.”

“There isn’t an adult in the country who doesn’t have a phone in their pocket and therefore access to the internet and all the public notices required by the county.

He also appreciated the reduced cost of an online portal. “The county was also able to significantly reduce its costs and simplify the process.”

Reached by email Friday, Sue Nelson, a former member of the planning commission, said: “While I think this is a sincere approach on the part of the county to save money, I think it is a huge mistake.”

“When I was a member of the Planning Commission, we constantly heard complaints that nearby residents were not properly informed of proposed land use changes,” she said.

“Public advisories published by a third party like The Ledger negate the conspiracy theory effect and ensure the sanitizing effect of sunshine that our governor always emphasizes,” Nelson said.

“Newspaper websites are usually the most visited sites”

At the September meeting, several people spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, from citizens to representatives of local newspapers.

Valla Dana Treuman, a retired Winter Haven teacher, said that as elected officials, the county commission must seize opportunities for transparency in public information.

“When I heard that as citizens we must fight for our right to know what public notices are, I was quite amazed and shocked that our county commissioners would actually consider removing public notices from the public view in our newspapers where they have been for over 250 years,” Treuman said.

Jim Fogler, president of the Florida Press Association and regional advertising president for Gannett, The Ledger’s parent company, said Polk County’s measure would result in less transparency on public information.

“While the new state law allows the county to post legal notices only on its own publicly accessible website without newspaper notices, I believe this is a bad result for the public,” Fogler said. “Newspaper websites have a broader audience because of the wealth of information on a wide range of topics. A newspaper’s web audience is typically several times larger than that of most city or county websites. Without news outlets housing public notices, there will be less written information provided to citizens, whether it’s an environmentally sensitive project, a school board decision or the zoning of a subdivision.”

He also noted that FPA has teamed up with technology partner Column to help newspapers implement the new state law and place all government notices on one website, floridapublicnotices.com, which is free for public use.

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David Dunn-Rankin of DR Media and Investments LLC, which publishes seven Sun newspapers in Florida, including editions in Four Corners, Winter Haven and a Polk County edition, proposed saving the county money by offering most legal notices free of charge, both in print and online.

He also proposed creating a free website for the county’s public notices.

About saving money?

The proposed government website is expected to cost $30,000 a year, a county spokeswoman said. As of September, the county had spent $10,000 on a new website. The county pays about $100,000 for all the public notices it places in local newspapers.

Retired Ledger reporter Tom Palmer, who writes for the Sierra Club’s Old Islands group and sometimes speaks on environmental issues at county meetings, said during public comments that the move was intended only to hurt local community newspapers because of politics in Tallahassee.

“Let’s get straight to the point, this is not about cost,” Palmer said. “This is about putting a stone in the coffin of the local newspaper and reducing its profits. That’s the net effect of this change.”

Legislation allowing local governments to change how they notify the public in writing went into effect Jan. 1, 2023. Opponents saw it as another step toward rolling back Florida’s access to public information laws and even an attempt to hide public decision-making or actions that could impact their constituents.

Polk County state legislators who voted for the bill in March 2022 included state Sen. and former Rep. Colleen Burton (R-Lakeland), state Rep. Sam Killebrew (R-Winter Haven), state Rep. Melony Bell (R-Fort Meade) and Rep. Josie Tomkow (R-Polk City).