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Legislature should not shift public notices to Web

Four bills moving through the Legislature, seemingly small in scope, threaten to undermine Wisconsin’s public notice laws.

What’s the big deal? The answer, unfortunately, is a lot.

The proposed changes would reverse the historic duty of government to keep citizens informed of what it is doing. Instead, the changes would shift the burden, forcing people to track down day-to-day official information. Ironically, this occurs as we mark the March 14-20 national “Sunshine Week." The observance is a nonpartisan initiative to appreciate the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools, private citizens, public officials, news-gathering organizations and anyone else interested in the public’s right to know.

Because limitless government activities affect our lives, state law contains dozens of directions for how citizens should be notified of those actions. Some laws apply to different levels of government, while others apply specifically to towns, villages, cities, counties or school boards. Some laws deal with publication in official municipal newspapers; others deal simply with posting notices in public places—among citizens.

The four bills would reduce the long-standing requirements for three public postings of notices in situations as varied as abandoned goods in storage units, giving notice of public meetings and the court-ordered sale of personal goods or property to satisfy judgments. They are Senate bills 276 and 541, and Assembly bills 546 and 707.

Each bill eliminates at least one physical posting of a public notice. The trade-off is to “allow” citizens to go to government-run Web sites to ferret out their own information. Incredulously, one bill permits an “official” site that the Wisconsin Self Storage Association owns!

The value and reach of the Internet is obvious. Local government Web sites can serve as an additional information source. But they should not be substitutes for established public notice. Fundamental change should not be made because some self-storage unit owners, real estate sellers and civil process servers complain about inconvenience to them in following public notice requirements.

At recent hearings, two legislators seemed to justify their bills when they observed the absence of citizens to protest changes, and that the Wisconsin Newspaper Association—whose members would not be affected by the changes—was the only opposition.

The response is that a traditional role of newspapers is to be a government “watchdog,” and WNA was there to do that job. Never mind that the hearings were scheduled with only a couple days notice, making it difficult for “average citizens” to attend. Besides, citizens would hope that legislators would put the interests of the “average citizen” ahead of special interests.

The point is that government-operated Web sites don’t push notices out to anyone. While accessible to everyone with a computer, those sites notify no one. Advocates say these changes are “efficient” for public officials. But nowhere in this state—or in this nation—is a public notice requirement based on convenience to the governmental unit. It must be convenient to the people.

Possibly because they’re so “wired in” at the state Capitol, many legislators advocate shifting all public notices to the Internet. Would they take that position if they were just regular members of the public who don’t have a lot of time in their personal lives to check up on what government is doing?

You’re the judge: Do you believe government is obligated to reach out and inform the public? Or would you rather be the responsible party to keep tabs on things?

Happy Sunshine Week.

Peter D. Fox, who spent more than 24 years in weekly and daily newspapers and also served a decade in state government, is executive director of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association and a director of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council. E-mail Peter.Fox@wnanews.com.