Editorial: You should care about public notices

by Shannon Taylor Senior Investigative Reporter

City and County governments are required to keep the citizens informed regarding their actions. Public notices are a way to accomplish that. Public notices inform citizens of the governments activities that may cause citizens to take action, therefore, these notices are required to be distributed in newspapers. They are mandatory announcements regarding activities your government plans to do, or things that your government has already put in motion. Not only are they mandatory, but the government is required to pay newspapers to print these notices.

The government is required by law to distribute these notices through an independent third party to the general public. Public notices can include rezoning issues, bids, meetings, hearings and more. It is always in the best interest of citizens to be able to observe and respond to these notices.

There have been many attempts in certain states to change that law that notices be published in newspapers, but the community impact regarding transparency lost and not being able to keep them informed should be eye-opening. These notices do not cost the taxpayer anything, however, there have been some instances in certain states where officials wanted to make a government public notice site which would cost taxpayers money. This is just one of many reasons why having these public notices in the newspaper is so important.

The government should not distribute their own public notices and they should not want to. Newspapers have kept the government protected from those that might accuse them of changing their notices or releasing incomplete or even untimely information by handling the publication, verification, distribution and archiving of these notices.

Contact your local legislatures and make sure that they know that citizens need access to public notices in the local paper and that these notices help to keep the public both informed and the government transparent. Your government should be accountable as well as open and public notices printed in newspapers help to accomplish that. Stay informed on what happens locally in your hometown-it is too risky not to.