The state of Florida needs to keep public notices public.
Lawmakers should protect your right to know. Every action of government is your business. Every penny spent by government is your money. From city hall to the state capitol to the White House, government belongs to the governed and not the governing.
You have the right to know what the governing are up to and how your money is being spent, always.
But a bill sponsored by the Florida House Judiciary Committee and its chair Erin Grall would hinder the public’s ability — your ability — to know just what is happening.
Local governments — cities, counties, school boards as well as other taxing authorities — currently are required to publish public notices in local, legal newspapers.
The proposed bill — which was heard and approved by that same committee, including Rep. Chuck Brannan — would no longer require those governing bodies to do that. Instead, local governments would only be required to post public notices on a publicly-accessible website. Or, more accurately, bury them on a government website for a “reasonable” time with the hopes that few will notice.
Proponents of the bill will claim giving control of public notices will save you, the taxpayer, money. It isn’t true.
If passed, cities and counties will have to create their own systems, spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ money to implement the technology and infrastructure to document the publication of notices.
And what happens when a land-use change or fee assessment increase is enacted and people feel like they weren’t properly notified of the pending decision? Litigation is sure to follow and more money gone from the public’s purse.
Instead, under the current system, legal newspapers charge a small fee to publish the public notices in print, on their own neutral, third-party websites and a statewide website as well as providing a notarized affidavit that documents it was published.
It’s a service governments are paying newspapers to perform for them. It’s no different than hiring an asphalt provider to repave a road or an engineering company to provide a study for a project. The private sector can do it cheaper and is responsible for the cost of infrastructure as well as the liability of getting it done right.
Which means getting the information to you, the public.
The issue is all about the public’s right to know. Every lawmaker should be wary of any measure that would erode the public’s right to know. It is a dangerous, and disturbing, precedent to set.
Reach out to your legislators and let them know that isn’t a precedent you are willing for them to take. Brannan can be reached at chuck.brannan@myfloridahouse.gov. State Sen. Jennifer Bradley can be reached at bradley.jennifer@flsenate.gov.