Repost on $218,775.13 is Amount Guilford County Taxpayers Waste on Public Notices in Greensboro News and Record

This is a repost on a past blog post but with the renewed interest in saving taxpayers money it would be beneficial to look at some of these past posts in regards to wasting taxpayers money on public notices

Guilford County Public Notice Invoices 2011 From Local Print Media



Triadwatch did a public records request for information on just how much taxpayers money is spent in the past year and a half on having to put public notices in the local paid print media.



There has been 3 previous post in regards to this wasteful spending on this blog:



#1 CLICKHERE 



$86,740.29 is the Amount Guilford County Taxpayers  Paid for Tax Delinquency in Greensboro News and Record on March 23, 2011



#2 CLICKHERE



$31,665.96 City of Greensboro Wasteful Spending on Public Notices in Carolina Peacemaker



#3 CLICKHERE



$96,288.47 City of Greensboro on Wasteful Spending on Public Notices in Greensboro News and Record





Now you can see with the above scribd document that was provided from Guilford County to what has been paid out in taxpayers money to the Greensboro News and Record from 3-1-2010 through 4-30-2011 below is the break down of 5 different vendor numbers that pertains to a different department who put public notices in the paper.



Greensboro News and Record Public Notice Billing by Vendor # from 3-1-2010 through 4-30-2011



Vendor # 65763  = $1,811.03

Vendor # 65767  = $175,385.68

Vendor # 65777  = $1,605.83

Vendor # 65787  = $4,317.69

Vendor # 65778  = $35,654.90



TOTAL = $218,775.13



So if you are a  City of Greensboro taxpayer adding this post and the previous post you are spending $314,963.60 in your tax dollars to place public notices in the Greensboro News and Record.Do you think this is a good use of taxpayer money? NO



Is it time to let our state lawmakers know that you would support a bill to have these public notices available on the local governments web site for all to see on a daily basis not just on one day of showing it in the local papers or putting public notices in papers not available to every part of the city like Greensboro's Carolina Peacemaker.



Right now we are seeing the local paid newspapers all over this state write editorials and also ads in their papers wanting to stop house bill #472 and senate bill #773 from going forward.



If you agree with saving taxpayers money all over this state then now is the time to let your state lawmakers know you support  House Bill #472 and Senate Bill #773. If you need a link to find your representative in the North Carolina Legislature CLICKHERE



We will have one final post that will add up all the taxpayers money up to this point from the public records request from Guilford County, City of Greensboro and also got the numbers from the City of High Point to add to the final tally on public notices in local paid newspapers. After seeing the tax delinquency in the Greensboro News and Record a few months ago it got me thinking how much this cost the taxpayers. Then seeing the Greensboro News and Record editorial  "Help Public see Notices" CLICKHERE , they never once said how much money they made off the taxpayers in the past year in this editorial or even that they were on the government trough. Now we know that the Greensboro News and Record is making $314,963.60. It is time for this expense to go away .



There is one question that i want to do more research on in regards to this matter is if the foreclosure notices in the paper are a function of the county or is this a state issue to pay for those notices. The reason i ask is because those are very lengthly and if the state pays for these than this $300,000 plus taxpayer money towards these bills would make this number a lot higher. If anyone knows the answer please inform in the comment section of this post.



Citizens Against Government Waste , triad edition.

Illegal Lobbyist Marlene Sanford Schmoozing as a Lobbyist on Front Page of Rhino Times

The Unofficial Lobbyist Marlene Sanford or as i would like to call her the illegal lobbyist has a front page picture in Rhino Times haming it up with our State Representatives from this past Monday's Greensboro legislative agenda where the #1 issue for the state representatives is to amend the Jordan Lake Rules.  Who has been lobbying the state illegally but the TREBIC CARTEL ILLEGAL LOBBYIST Marlene Sanford. If you want to know who controls the local Greensboro government or the fox guarding the hen house all you need to do is look at this organization called TREBIC here is a link to their members CLICKHERE

News & Record : Short Stack: Keep Public Notices Public PART #2

News & Record : Short Stack: Food for thought, quick and over easy: An Example Description

Greensboro News and Record for Monday the 18th of 2013 had this in their Short Stack section of monday's paper

Keep public notices public

There’s a renewed effort to pull public legal notices out of newspapers in North Carolina. And while it concerns papers that they could be stripped of a longstanding revenue source, this involves a much bigger issue.

Sharing these notices with the taxpaying public on the printed page significantly increases the opportunity for more citizens to see them. Relegating them to government websites, as the proposed legislation suggests, reduces visibility. Not everyone has access to a computer or to affordable Internet service. North Carolina offers one of the nation’s lowest levels of broadband Internet availability.

Fewer citizens are as likely to see such notices on a government websites as in a daily newspaper. Which contradicts the notion that public notices should be public.

 

The Greensboro News and Record is in never never land with this load of malarkey that was given to us this past Monday. One thing we all need to understand is that it is all about the money and not one bit about notifying the public in regards to public notices. If the Greensboro News and Record was wanting to inform the general public than even with a new design for their crappy website we see that there is no place for them to place public notices on their web site, you have to pay to see a public notice in paper and if you are not a subscriber to the News and Record than hopefully you picked the right day to view the public notice section of paper.Being a subscriber to the News and Record with a facebook special will cost you $150 and we have seen that newspapers all over this country are not gaining subscribers but actually losing subscribers. Here is a report from Roch101 . We also have the Editor of the Greensboro News and Record Jeff "Grits" Gauger  say this in a blog post

"Equally important has been the digital revolution.

Time was when newspapers provided a public service by publishing news-of-record information, because your only other way to view it was to schlep to city hall or the courthouse. Now many governments publish public records at their websites."

 

THANK YOU EDITOR OF GREENSBORO NEWS AND RECORD FOR MAKING MY POINT

If you are able to get to a computer either at your home and if you live in Guilford County you can go to any library and they will give you free access to the Internet if you would like to see  public notices it would be to our benefit to have this available 24 hours a day not just in a paid paper but free to all of us on each city and county municipality website. Granted it will cost money to have this available to the masses on city and county websites but i think with just this one bill below would take care of plenty of public notices for the whole year.

Triadwatch is working on getting support from the State Representatives to exempt Guilford County from the tax delinquency bill and save taxpayers close to $100,000 because the tax department provides this information to all the citizens of Guilford County 24/7 .Here is a link to a post on Triadwatch CLICKHERE

Triadwatch also did a public records request to see just how much taxpayers money it cost to place the tax delinquency bill for the citizens of Guilford County as we see from this scribd documents that the Greensboro News and Record made over $80,000 just on one insert in the Greensboro News and Record March 14, 2012 .

2012 tax delinquency bills for guilford county nc by triadwatch

Hopefully we will see some local or state bills address the issue of public notices in paid papers and to do away with it all together and save taxpayers all over this state maybe millions of dollars from cities , counties and also school boards having to put public notices in paid papers.

News & Record : Editorial: Berger gets a chair and lends city an ear/ THEN OMITS ELECTRONIC NOTICE AS A BULLET POINT

News & Record : Editorial: Berger gets a chair and lends city an ear: An Example Description


The Greensboro News and Record Opinion page from 2-21-2013 omits one big issue that has been talked about for a few years in this state called public or electronic notices. In the opinion page of the News and Record here are the bullet points for the City of Greensboro State Legislative Agenda

"The city also wants:

-- The state Division of Motor Vehicles to collect unpaid parking tickets by refusing to renew car registrations to drivers who owe money.

-- The ability to address disparities in minority contracting through legislation tailored to “Greensboro’s unique needs.”

-- Authority to stop “brown bagging” at sexually oriented businesses that have lost alcohol permits but continue to operate as unregulated “juice bars.”

-- Permission to raise its annual motor vehicle fee from $10 to $15 to provide additional funding for city buses.

-- Measures to protect local revenues from state budget cuts.

-- The power to appoint a receiver for vacant buildings in poor condition and then to rehabilitate, demolish or sell those buildings."

 

Here is what was omitted from the opinion page by the Greensboro News and Record

 

-- ELECTRONIC NOTICE

   Seek legislation to give the City the option to use electronic legal public notices in lieu of publication in a newspaper.

 

State law currently requires all legal notices be published or advertised in a newspaper of general circulation. The City seeks revision of this law to allow selected legal notices to be published by electronic means on the City's website. The North Carolina League of Municipalities has also approved this item as an advocacy goal for the upcoming session.

 

One thing that is missing from what the City of Greensboro said above is that they need to add "PAID" to the newspapers in regards to these public notices because weekly papers like Yes Weekly and Rhino Times are shut out from getting taxpayers money in regards to this issue and if you look at the coverage of what you would like to see in getting public notices to the people both of these weekly papers have better coverage and it is also FREE to citizens but the state law says you have to be a "paid paper".

 

This week John Hammer from Rhino Times had this to say on the meeting that occurred on Monday between the Guilford Legislatures and this issue.

 

"A bill that is near and dear to our heart that is on the Greensboro legislative agenda is to open up legally required advertising to media other than paid circulation newspapers. The City of Greensboro could save a lot of money if it were not required to run legal advertising in the News & Record or other paid circulation newspapers.

Because most of the mainstream newspapers in the state endorse liberal Democrats for office, this bill, which has been around for a while, didn't have much chance of passage. But the Republicans now run the government and most of them are not beholden to the mainstream media."

But as we see John Hammer might think that legislation will open up for him to be a part of the government trough of public notice money but what the City of Greensboro wants to do is save taxpayers to not publish these notices in any paper but on their website which is fine with me. Saving taxpayers millions  is the bottom line and having these notices published on every city and county website is a no brainer  especially when these laws came into existence well before the internet ever came into fruition.

One interesting tidbit from being at the Greensboro Legislative Agenda was when this item came up during the presentation State Representative John Blust turned around to look at Greensboro News and Record writer Doug Clark and ask him if the Greensboro News and Record will endorse this agenda item for Electronic Notices. No response from Doug.

WAIT WAIT STOP THE PRESSES CHECK OUT PART #2 OF THIS ISSUE WHERE I WAS FORWARDED A EMAIL FROM ALLEN JOHNSON FROM THE NEWS AND RECORD THAT THEY DID TALK ABOUT THIS ISSUE IN SHORT STACK FROM MONDAYS PAPER WILL POST ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW.

 

 

Happy 50th, Michael

Happy 50th, Michael

Drudge Report Carolina Edition with New Blog Called Carolina Plott Hound

HAT TIP : Piedmont Publius


While looking at sam's blog the other day he happened to link to a new blog called Carolina Plott Hound . This blog is similar to looking at the Drudge Report but the news is about North Carolina issues. It has plenty of links to every news source in the state and also plenty of headlines all over the state as well. Enjoy Carolina Plott Hound CLICKHERE

In Arizona, 2 Online Legal Notice Bills Have Been Passed in Committee

HAT TIP : LEGAL NOTICE ONLINE

In Arizona, 2 Online Legal Notice Bills Have Been Passed in Committee.

Online Legal Notice Legislation season is well under way as bills are being proposed in several states. (Texas, Michigan, Tennessee, Wyoming, Arizona) and have been shot down in two (Virginia, Indiana) .

One state is showing some creativity in proposing online notice bills.

Arizona's House Technology and Infrastructure Committee passed two bills that could change the way public notices are published. Bill HB 2533 would allow the local governments to post notices on their own websites instead of paying substantially for notices in the newspapers. This is the same wording that has been voted down over 30 times in various states over the past two years. House Bill 2483 , however, has a little more panache and hopefully has a better chance of passing. The bill changes "newspaper" to "public medium" wherever there is a requirement to publish a notice in a newspaper. This bill takes a step in allowing local governments to publish notices online (just maybe not on their own websites) In other words, the legislators are realizing that to get a bill passed, you may need to dictate that an entity other than the government should publish the message but we, as taxpayers don't have to pay newspapers through the nose to have them published in print.

These bills are a long way from becoming law. Both bills must go through two more committees before being voted on by the entire Arizona State House. Then they would need to go to the Senate.

Last year Arizona's House Technology and Infrastructure Committee did not pass the public notice bill proposed. This year, they did, despite some fierce lobbying by the newspaper industry. That's small progress.

PREDICTIONS-

HB 2483 doesn't pass for the same reason that similar bills haven't passed any where. People aren't comfortable with giving control over the message and the delivery of the message to the government. But times are changing and the fact that even this bill was approved in committee shows progress.

HB 2533 will have to go through some serious changes prior to passage ... most importantly what defines a "public medium" but its design shows that legislators can be creative in saving the taxpayers money.

To read how other states are addressing this issue Click HERE

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News & Record : Can pinball make a comeback?

News & Record : Can pinball make a comeback?: An Example Description

Pinball is on a comeback and with a place like Lost Ark Video Games on Spring Garden Street in Greensboro N.C. which will have a tournament on February 23rd at 7:00pm with well over 10 pinball machines to play on and hopefully we can get as many participants as we did in January with 40 players competing.  CLICKHERE for web site

Easley campaign still owes thousands | abc11.com

Easley campaign still owes thousands | abc11.com

City of Greensboro Takes Case to Raleigh on revamping Public Notice Laws in North Carolina

The City of Greensboro is approving their legislative agenda to send to the North Carolina State Representatives  on February 5, 2013

47. Resolution approving 2013 Legislative Agenda and requesting support thereof by the Guilford County Delegation to the General Assembly.
(Council District: all) (roll call vote) (Attachment #47 to Councilmembers)
48. Resolution approving 2013 Greensboro Partnership Legislative Agenda and requesting support thereof by the Guilford County Delegation to the General Assembly.
(Council District: all) (roll call vote) (Attachment #48 to Councilmembers)
49. Resolution approving 2013 League of Municipalities Legislative Agenda and requesting support thereof by the Guilford County Delegation to the General Assembly.
(Council District: all) (roll call vote) (Attachment #49 to Councilmembers)

 
Item #12 from the 2013 Legislative agenda is titled Electronic Notice

 Greensboro seeks legislation to have the option to use electronic legal public notices in lieu of publication in a newspaper. State law currently requires all legal notices be published or advertised in a newspaper of general circulation that also is a paid paper. The City of Greensboro seeks revision of this law to allow selected legal notices to be published by electronic means on the City's web site. The North Carolina League of Municipalities has approved this item as an advocacy goal for the upcoming season.

Will we see the Greensboro News and Record report on this? Probably not but the tide is turning for updating a state law in regards to public notices that was law before the internet ever came into existence. As we have seen here on this blog Triadwatch is advocating for our state representatives to save the Guilford County taxpayers close to $100,000 to exempt Guilford County from publishing tax delinquency notices once a year in the local papers . Here is the report on that issue on triadwatch CLICKHERE

Hopefully we will see our North Carolina State Representatives see the light on this issue and save the taxpayers money which should not be spent with the internet being the appropriate means of communication in this world today. I am sure the editors all over this state are going to bring out grandma and grandpa to let us all know they do not have the internet but all the taxpayers all over this state need to waste million of dollars having public notices in paid papers which are losing subscribers each year. The days when papers provided a great public service for public notices have been there but it is now the internet which needs to take the next step in this process and save taxpayers money on top of it.

News & Record : Roy Carroll speaks his mind

News & Record : Roy Carroll speaks his mind: An Example Description

Can't wait to read this puff piece on richie rich roy.