Latest on HB 7049 County Website-only Option
The new public notice law HB 7040, effective Jan. 1, 2023, allows counties or their designated entity to create and operate in place of newspaper notice a “publicly accessible website” to provide public notices and legal ads. If a county opts to set up such a site, other local government entities like municipalities and school boards can then use that site to post their own notices.
As you can see, under the bill, the counties will be the central focus of any new website.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
The following counties have met or have discussed the possibility of implementing the website-only option. Here is an update:
As previously reported, the Citrus County Commission initially wanted to move forward to an Oct. 18 public hearing on the new website option but after a substantial educational and outreach effort by Chronical staff to the commission and public, the matter never came to a vote and died on the agenda.
Please contact John Murphy at the Chronicle for any further information on what occurred at the meeting. Also, see on FPA’s website the recording of the VIP roundtable discussion and the Chronicle’s power point outlining its efforts regarding county officials and outreach to the public.
Polk County commissioners held a workshop in August to discuss the issue and staff is currently looking into the option so the County can meet further over the next couple of months. Here is an email from County staff indicating they will await input from Polk cities until Dec. 2, and to report back to the Board by late Dec. or early Jan.
Monroe County is looking into the option and the County Attorney will investigate for further action.
Broward County has looked at the new option and back in August reached out to the Sun-Sentinel and others about the possibility of a newspaper being the designated website.
St. Lucie County commission, at a July meeting, announced they were moving forward with a plan to test a legals website in October. However, they never mentioned it again, and we are still trying to verify if they even moved forward far enough to test it.
Duval and Pascoe Counties. We have heard these counties may have at least discussed the option but we have not heard of any movement.
CONTINUED RECOMMENDED ACTION
Each member newspaper publishing public notices/legal ads should remain vigilant about new developments or meetings by your local governments (especially county or counties) regarding the website-only option. In particular, keep your lines of communications open with county contacts and inform them proactively about the downsides of website-only notice.
If a meeting is scheduled on the issue, the local newspaper will be responsible for reaching out to individual commissioners and staff to educate them and discourage any vote in favor of such option.
Please let FPA staff (Jim and/or Sam) know what is happening in your county.
FPA RESOURCES
Here are some resources we will continue to expand on:
• Talk Tracks/Points: To help you make your case, the latest FPA Q and A’s can help.
• See also the resources previously indicated in our August 31 ebulletin:
- Breakdown by Alex Lutz of time/costs newspapers expend placing the notices
- FPA testimony used at the Citrus County hearing
- Talk track that we used during the legislative hearings on the issue with information relating to internet usage by Florida citizens and the 2020 Mason Dixon poll regarding public notices in newspapers.
We appreciate your help on this important project. Together we can w