Bradley
TALLAHASSEE — Another blow was delivered to the public’s right to know Thursday.
The Florida Senate passed HB 7049 by a 26-13 vote to allow local governments in some areas of the state the option of reducing transparency with public notices of its activities. The bill provides those governments the option of placing notices on a publicly-accessible website, such as its own, rather than in local legal newspapers as well as on that newspaper’s free website and www.floridapublicnotices.com, a free and independent statewide site operated by the Florida Press Association.
The exception in the law is for municipalities and counties with less than 160,000 population. The new law requires the presence of “adequate” broadband access throughout a county and if adequate broadband access exists, a public hearing must then be held before a government entity can run public notices on its own website.
Sen. Jennifer Bradley, the Republican senator for District 5, which includes Columbia and Suwannee counties, voted in favor of the bill.
“They put on the amendment for the smaller counties and if I ask them to fix a bill and try and make accommodations for the rural counties, when it comes up, it’s good faith to vote for it if they’ve made the accommodations,” she said. “Do I love the bill? No. But am I happy they made that carve-out and our smaller counties will be able to carry on as they are now? I am.”
The amendment for small counties was added by the House of Representatives prior to the bill’s arrival in the Senate. The Senate did amend the bill Wednesday that expands the newspapers that qualify to run notices in those areas that don’t go with the online only option, mirroring the current law’s language.
Bradley said she supported the bill because of the provision to protect small counties and require “adequate” broadband access before local governments could move public notices to their websites.
Bradley said she doesn’t believe any local government agency in the rural communities she serves will be able to make the determination — as required by the bill — that there is “adequate” broadband access.
“I think that it’s a real problem and I think that not only do you have to find internet, but you have to find that it’s going to be county-wide, that it exists in all areas of the county,” Bradley said.
Bradley said newspapers play an important role in their communities, particularly in rural areas where internet access isn’t as widely available.
“Our local papers are important and they’re trusted and they’re wanted,” Bradley said. “I expect when those issues are brought up that the county commissions are going to want those notices where they know their citizens can find them. So I think it’s going to be fine.”
That echoes what Rep. Chuck Brannan (R-Macclenny) said last month prior to the final House vote on the original bill.
“You’ll never have adequate internet coverage in Baker and Columbia counties,” Brannan said at the time. “With the (Osceola National) forest, you never could say Baker and Columbia are completely covered.
“So I don’t see how they could ever comply. Adequate, to me, is coverage everywhere, it’s 100% coverage. You can’t say 98% is adequate, you’re leaving somebody out.”
Lake City Reporter Publisher Todd Wilson was among a contingent from the Florida Press Association who testified before the Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday against the initial HB 7049 as presented to the Senate and heard for the first time.
“There is not adequate broadband access in Lake City or Columbia County or any of the other three counties our newspaper serves and we appreciate the logic afforded to rural areas,” Wilson said Thursday. “We will continue to print public notices and provide notarized proof of publication affidavits. We have also provided local and statewide public notices on our free-access website for nearly a decade and we will continue to do that. Public notices are free to search now and this is not new.”
Wilson serves on the Florida Press Association’s state board of directors and also is a member of the group’s Public Notice Task Force. That group worked diligently with the Florida Senate during the 2021 session to build a compromise on HB 35 that expanded the marketplace and the reach for public notices across Florida. The legislation was heralded nationwide as a model compromise between media industries and government entities on how to expand informational reach in print and online to the most residents.
HB 35 became law on Jan. 1, 2022, exactly 67 days before the Florida Senate took up the new HB 7049 to gut last year’s work in hurried fashion.
“The best way to hide information from the public is to place it somewhere on a government website that sees very little traffic,” Wilson said. “Overall for Florida, this legislation is very concerning. Both the scope and the method by which it was rushed through is alarming.”
The House version of the bill surfaced suddenly on Feb. 2, presented quickly to the Judiciary Committee. It shot through House committees and was passed on the floor. The Senate picked up the bill — without any Senate companion bill — on Monday, assigned it to the rules committee hearing on Tuesday afternoon, day 57 of Florida’s 60-day session. It passed rules and went to the Senate floor. Normal Senate procedure is three committee stops for vetting, public input and discussion. The bill had its third reading on the floor and adoption on Thursday afternoon.
The amended HB 7049 was approved 79-40 in the Florida House late Thursday, with Rep. Brannan voting against it. The bill now will be sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis. If he signs the legislation into law, it will go into effect Jan. 1, 2023.
Lake Mary Republican Sen. Jason Brodeur, who served as the presenter for the bill (which had no companion bill filed in the Senate) said Thursday during its final reading that the bill would expand access to public notices, which include meeting announcements or other actions, such as tax increases and land use changes.
“Notice should be given to the most amount of people,” Brodeur said. “This is the most available legal notices will be for people in the history of Florida.”
However, current law mandates all public notices in the state already run online in addition to the ability to continue running notices in print newspapers.
That print option is vitally important, said Loranne Ausley, (D-Quincy) senator from District 3, which includes Hamilton County.
“Print newspapers continue to serve a vital and traditional function in our state,” said Ausley, adding that there are a number of Floridians who don’t have access to the internet, whether it is too expensive or just not available in their rural communities.
Ausley described last year’s compromised legislation as “some of (the legislature’s) greatest work, the kind of work we’re capable of when we look at all sides of an issue with clear eyes and collaborate to look out for our citizens.”
Still, Gary Farmer Jr. (D-Fort Lauderdale) said residents across the state lose by taking public notices out of newspapers in larger, metropolitan areas of Florida.
“Information is power,” Farmer said. “Information is power and we are taking it away little by little by little.”