Bill > A4429

Introduced Session

This bill would allow government agencies and persons to publish legal notices on official government notice websites instead of in newspapers. Permitting the publication of legal notices on the Internet instead of in newspapers will make these notices more easily accessible to the public, thereby promoting transparency and increased public participation in government, while also saving government agencies and persons significant sums of money. 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. A notice website created under the bill would have to be an index webpage containing a list of all current legal notices relating to the government agency, with links to the full text of those notices, not just summaries of the notices. Such government agency would further have to designate officials to be responsible for these electronic publications, and to serve as contact persons who handle the intake and processing of electronic publication requests made by persons. The government agency would also be required to 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. The Office of Information Technology would be required to, on or before the first day of the third month following the effective date of the bill, establish on the State Internet website a webpage that would contain a directory of all government agency notice websites. The office would also have to, within that same timeframe, establish a link to the directory webpage that is prominently displayed on the home webpage of the State Internet website. The office would further be responsible for continuously maintaining the directory webpage and for updating 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. On or before the first day of the third month following the effective date of the bill, the Chief Technology Officer of the Office of Information Technology, in consultation with the Director of the Division of Local Government Services, would have to promulgate rules and regulations to effectuate the bill.

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Jon Bramnick (R)*,  Michael Carroll (R)*,  Vincent Prieto (D)*, 

Reported out of Assembly Comm. with Amendments, 2nd Reading (on 12/15/2016)