Brannan
TALLAHASSEE — Where did the latest attack on the public’s right to know come from?
That’s what Rep. Chuck Brannan (R-Macclenny) wants to know.
“Where did that come from? I don’t know,” Brannan said Wednesday, a day after the Florida House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee heard a bill that would remove public notices from local newspapers and their websites and instead put those notices completely under government’s control.
Brannan is a member of that committee and voted for the bill, HB 7049. After a lively discussion and input from several public comments, it passed by a 14-5 vote. Brannan said nothing during the exchange, just voted “yes.”
“We were all just shaking our heads,” he said about the bill, which wasn’t filed until the end of last week. “It’s a committee bill. That doesn’t happen unless it comes from somebody pretty high up the hierarchy.
“I don’t know what’s going on. What’s the purpose? I don’t know.”
Despite voting in favor of the bill, Brannan said Wednesday he isn’t a fan of the proposed bill, which would allow government agencies to place public notices, such as meeting announcements, land use changes, or proposed tax rate changes, on their own websites with no supervision or accountability.
Brannan has said the same thing the past two years in regard to bills that would reduce public access to notice about the actions of its government. Yet, Brannan has also consistently voted in favor of those proposals.
“I know the time to vote against, which was not today because you cut your nose off to spite your face,” Brannan said. “We’d rather work it from other angles to see what’s behind this and where it’s going.”
During last year’s session, the Florida Press Association worked with leadership from both the Florida Senate and House on a compromised bill that allowed public notices to remain in the public domain through their local legal newspaper or on that newspaper’s website as well as online at www.floridapublicnotices.com, a free and independent site operated by the Florida Press Association. Every public notice advertised under the guidelines of Florida law is included on this website. This site also must be linked to the home page of every legal newspaper in the state and be free to use by any member of the public in front of any subscription device on a legal newspaper’s website.
By law, newspapers publishing public notices also provide sworn affidavits and proof of publication in print and online.
“I’m very disappointed in Representative Brannan’s approach to this very important issue of the public’s right to know,” said Todd Wilson, publisher of the Lake City Reporter. “We worked closely with House and Senate leaders in 2021, testified several times during session, and acted on their concerns. Our industry spent hundreds of thousands of dollars statewide to upgrade technology to make sure more Floridians could access public notices more efficiently and provide a verified, third-party system that tracks and provides affidavits for these important notices. It was a great compromise and a good example of government and the private sector working for the public good.”
The current law, amended in 2021, passed the House 105-9 with Brannan in support. It passed the Senate 39-0 and was quickly signed into law by the governor.
Wilson also is a member of the Florida Press Association’s Board of Directors and a member of the group’s Public Notice Task Force that worked on the front lines with both chambers of the legislature last session and throughout 2021 to make sure the industry’s technology and service for public notices was upgraded.
“I fully understand the concept of ‘horse trading’ in government to get things done, but the public’s right to know should never be a gambling chip tossed around so carelessly,” Wilson said. “You can’t keep telling me you don’t like a proposed bill, you’re against it, then turn around and vote for it.”
The Lake City Reporter is a legal newspaper and gains a small portion of its revenue from public notice advertising. It serves Columbia, Suwannee, Hamilton and Lafayette counties. The statewide website for public notices can be viewed for free by clicking “Public Notices” at the top of the home page at www.lakecityreporter.com. The online portal is free to use by anyone and does not require a subscription to the newspaper.
All public notices published in the Reporter also are free to view on the paper’s website.
Last year’s negotiated bill expanded access to public notices — which has worked to see hundreds of thousands of additional Floridians have access to public notices, according to the Florida Press Association.
The compromise legislation last session passed both chambers with overwhelming support — including Brannan and Sen. Jennifer Bradley (R-Fleming Island). It was also touted as a shining example of government at work with a partnership of private business and public officials.
Less than a year later, the House is considering trashing that law to allow taxing authorities — county commissions, city councils and school boards as well as other entities including the Lake Shore Hospital Authority and the Suwannee River Water Management District — to self-publish public notices online.
The wording of the proposed bill on the specific requirements of government notification obligation to the public is very vague, calling only for “reasonable” advance notice.
“I was happy with what got worked out,” Brannan said of last year’s compromise. “I was as shocked as anybody. I thought it was put to bed last year.”