Taking notices from newspapers violates forefathers’ intentions

Public notices have been part of American government since the first session of the first U.S. Congress. In 1789, the new Congress declared all legislative actions and executive decisions would be published in at least three public newspapers, so citizens would know what its government was doing.

Maine’s Legislature is considering a bill to eliminate state public notices from newspapers. Instead, LD 1878 proposes state government posts notices of its activities on the Internet. Its sponsor claims this is cost-neutral, and will save taxpayer money now paid to publish notices in newspapers.

The principle of public notices is more than providing information to the public. It’s a system of putting information deemed paramount to active civil government before as many citizens as possible.

We have additional ways of getting government information. Open meetings and open-records laws allow citizens to inquire about government records and observe government in action. They require citizens to go and get – to pull out of government – whatever it is they want to know.

Public notices are, instead, “push” communications. They force government to distribute information to citizens about its actions. We have decided some kinds of government information are so important, and affect citizens so immediately, we shouldn’t be forced to seek the information, but it should be brought to our attention.

Public notices work because they force government to announce what it proposes, or what it is about to do. Government must publish this information in an easily available, and timely, form to citizens. If these criteria are unmet, government cannot move forward with the proposals or activities.

Much of what is proposed in LD 1878, to replace this proven system, has not yet been decided.

What LD 1878 does assert, however, is this system will save tax dollars, about $1.5 million per biennium. How this new system would be designed and supported is not detailed in the bill. Nor is there information about what kinds of posting standards or penalties for noncompliance that would be put in place.

LD 1878 provides no procedure or format for producing and posting notices. It provides no structure for standardized equipment or procedure for upgrades, technicians, maintenance, review, emergencies or error. The bill also fails to propose means of measuring distribution, a mechanism for acceptable rates of penetration, or designation of “community” for legal notice expectations.

LD 1878 waves at, but does not grasp, real standards for archiving public notice text, context and reach.

Newspapers are independent of government, so they serve reasonably well as an independent witness to government activities and mandates. LD 1878 proposes government offices produce and post their own notices, without oversight by an independent party.

Newspapers are accountable when publication is supposed to occur, and does not. The community and government expect reliability and transparency in business, and newspapers should lose contracts when these parameters are unmet. LD 1878 provides no recourse for poor performance of Web masters.

Newspapers provide a fixed and easily accessible format – no equipment, no special place or screen, nothing more than a grade-school education is needed to master the turning of a page, and the eyes across that page. Text cannot migrate or disappear; ink on paper is difficult to “hack” without leaving obvious traces.

All who use the Internet know digital media is neither fixed nor easily accessible. Computing is neither trouble-free as a communication medium, nor is it cost-free.

Lawmakers should consider the large and the small effects of LD 1878 – the major element at stake is the very principle of open government. Public notice was instituted to force government information out of bureaucratic control by delivering it to everyone, not just posting it for stumbling upon.

I hope lawmakers will ask the actual cost of the proposed system – which requires system development, maintenance, software, hardware, technicians, digital archiving, emergency response personnel and backup systems.

The adage penny-wise and pound foolish should quickly come to mind following such considerations.

Shannon E. Martin, Ph.D., is a professor of communication and journalism at the University of Maine, and co-author of “Newspapers of Record in a Digital Age.” E-mail her at [email protected].