Legal notices; locality to publish on its website instead of advertising in newspaper. (HB1378)

Introduced By

Del. Mark Cole (R-Fredericksburg)

Progress

Introduced
Passed Committee
Passed House
Passed Senate
Signed by Governor
Became Law

Description

Advertisement of legal notices on websites. Allows a locality to publish required legal notices on its website instead of advertising them in a newspaper having a general circulation in the locality. Read the Bill »

Status

01/18/2013: Merged into HB1373

History

DateAction
12/10/2012Committee
12/10/2012Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/13 13101198D
12/10/2012Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns
01/11/2013Assigned CC & T sub: #2
01/17/2013Subcommittee recommends incorporating (HB1373-Head)
01/18/2013Incorporated by Counties, Cities and Towns (HB1373-Head)

Video

This bill was discussed on the floor of the General Assembly. Below is all of the video that we have of that discussion, 1 clip in all, totaling 4 minutes.

Comments

James Naggles writes:

Why is it that these people presume that anyone who needs to know about these public notices has access to the Internet? Large numbers of people do not even own computers. This is a perfect example of how far removed you are from the general public you purport to represent.

By the way, what is the evil that this measure is meant to address?

ACLU-VA Open Government, tracking this bill in Photosynthesis, notes:

ACLU of Virginia joins the Virginia Press Association in opposing this legislation that would remove notices of pending government action from community newspapers and authorize localities to publish the notices only on government-run websites. ACLU-VA and the VPA believe that government should not be the only check on dissemination of public information. Newspapers continue to be the way most adults gather information about their government, particularly in communities with little or no high-speed internet connections. The cost of newspaper notices is not significant especially compared to the cost of developing and maintaining a secure website. Once printed in a newspaper, a government notice cannot be changed which is not true of information maintained on a website. Continued publication of public notices in newspapers is important to protecting transparency of information and open government.