Bill > S451

Introduced Session

This bill would allow government agencies and persons to publish legal notices on official government notice websites instead of in newspapers. The bill permits the electronic publication of legal notices in every instance in which the law requires newspaper publication. This option would be available with respect to a government agency if the government agency has, for a three month period beginning on or after the enactment date, published all legal notices both on its official website and in newspapers and provided notice both on its official website and in newspapers that the government agency may exclusively publish legal notices electronically going forward. A government agency that meets these requirements and elects to exclusively publish legal notices electronically would also have to create a notice website on which the required legal notices would be electronically published; designate officials to be responsible for these electronic publications and serve as contact persons who handle the intake and processing of electronic publication requests made by persons; and receive and review any complaints with respect to electronically published legal notices, which complaints would have to be made available for public inspection. Whenever a legal notice that has been electronically published pursuant to the bill is inaccessible for 25 percent or more of the publication timeframe provided by law, the legal notice would have to be electronically published for the entirety of that timeframe beginning anew from the day on which access to the notice is restored, and the action for which the legal notice is required would be delayed accordingly. However, the bill as amended provides that election dates and deadlines would not be delayed if an electronically published election legal notice is inaccessible for 25 percent or more of the publication timeframe provided by law. The Office of Information Technology would be required to establish on the State Internet website a webpage containing a directory of all government agency notice websites, and continuously maintain the directory webpage and update the directory webpage to include the notice website of a government agency within 10 days after receiving notice from the government agency that it has created a notice website. Savings that a local government agency realizes from publishing legal notices electronically instead of in newspapers pursuant to the bill would have to be used solely and exclusively to reduce the amount required to be raised by the local property tax levy. The bill amends several sections of current law requiring notices to be published in newspapers in order to further clarify that these notices may be published electronically instead of in a newspaper. Although the bill does not amend every statute with a legal notice newspaper publication requirement, the amended statutes account for the vast majority of the legal notices published in newspapers, and therefore warrant further clarity on the availability of the option to publish electronically. The bill's general provisions allowing for the electronic publication of legal notices would still apply to all other sections of law with legal notice newspaper publication requirements, but which are not amended by the bill to reflect the availability of the electronic publication option. This bill would not affect existing notice content and publication timeframes, which would still apply to any legal notices that are electronically published. The bill would also not affect the ability of government agencies and persons to opt to meet legal notice publication requirements through newspaper publication as set forth under current law. The Chief Technology Officer of the Office of Information Technology, in consultation with the Director of the Division of Local Government Services, would promulgate rules and regulations to effectuate the bill.

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Michael Doherty (R)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee (on 01/14/2020)