Public Notices in North Carolina Needs to Be Open To Weekly Newspapers With One Simple Fix

There has been a lot of talk about public notices in North Carolina with N.C. Senator Trudy Wade trying to get legislation passed to revamp public notice laws to 2015 standards not 1949 standards. There was a time where the only form to advertise public notices was in the local paper but now with the invention of the computer, smart phones and internet it is time to think differently.

Let's take some small steps in this process and the obvious is to get some wording taken out of the North Carolina General Statute. Here is what is written in the North Carolina General Statute 1-597
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§ 1-597.  Regulations for newspaper publication of legal notices, advertisements, etc.

Whenever a notice or any other paper, document or legal advertisement of any kind or description shall be authorized or required by any of the laws of the State of North Carolina, heretofore or hereafter enacted, or by any order or judgment of any court of this State to be published or advertised in a newspaper, such publication, advertisement or notice shall be of no force and effect unless it shall be published in a newspaper with a general circulation to actual paid subscribers which newspaper at the time of such publication, advertisement or notice, shall have been admitted to the United States mails in the Periodicals class in the county or political subdivision where such publication, advertisement or notice is required to be published, and which shall have been regularly and continuously issued in the county in which the publication, advertisement or notice is authorized or required to be published, at least one day in each calendar week for at least 25 of the 26 consecutive weeks immediately preceding the date of the first publication of such advertisement, publication or notice

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Now as we see from this legislation that dates back to the 1940's it makes public notices have to be done in "Paid Subscribers" . Paid subscribers are papers like the Greensboro News and Record,Carolina Peacemaker, High Point Enterprise and Jamestown News in Guilford County.

 

We have a plethora of weekly papers that can provide public notices in Guilford County and they charge NOTHING to pick up a weekly paper but are locked out of the process because of this law that states it has to be a paid paper. Yes Weekly, Triad City Beat, Rhino Times and Northwest Observer are a few of the weekly papers in Guilford County that do a good job of informing us on local politics and should be able to provide public notices in this county. A great example of the absurdity of this law is the Northwest Observer which covers cities like Oak Ridge, Summerfield and Stokesdale and provides their papers for  FREE at no cost to the consumer . The cities I referenced have to go through the Greensboro News and Record to provide their public notices, when in reality it would be to the benefit of the citizens in Northwest part of Guilford County to get their public notices through the weekly Observer than News and Record because more citizens are getting home drop off of the weekly than subscribers to the News and Record in this part of county. State Representative John Blust tried to make his point on this but went on deaf ears to the state representatives who are scared to piss off the local newspapers to get negative press on them and to keep their monopoly on public notices because of outdated state law.

 

My suggestion as you can see in the above state law 1-597 is a small step but needs to be done in a county like Guilford who has weekly papers who can provide this information. We need to get a bill passed either local bill or statewide to take out "PAID SUBSCRIBERS" from the state law so that weekly papers can have a chance at providing this information to the citizens of Guilford County.

 

This is a small step to take out 2 words in a law but am sure the lobbyist and their state cheerleaders will fight this till the end. We will see what happens but hopefully we can get some traction with weekly newspapers all over the state and get a bill passed to take out "PAID SUBSCRIBERS" from NGS 1-597

 

 

Triad Newspaper Circulation Decline Makes Public Notice Modernization Laws A No Brainer

Owen Covington from the Triad Business Journal has this headline "Triad daily newspapers see continued circulation declines"  . In the article was some interesting tidbits about our local newspaper for example

 

"The News & Record saw Sunday circulation drop from 79,358 as of March 31, 2013 to 72,649 as of the same date this year, an 8.5 percent decline. It's average weekly circulation was below 50,000, declining from 54,452 last year to 49,496 this year. "

Then later in article other cities did not fare well either

It was a difficult year for all of the state's daily newspapers, none of which saw year-over-year increases in circulation, according to the AAM report.

The Charlotte Observer, North Carolina's largest newspaper, saw Sunday circulation fall from 191,962 last year to 179,698 this year. It's sister paper in Raleigh fared slightly better, with a decline from 179,214 in 2013 to 171,406 this year.

Over the past few years this blog has been notifying the public on the wasted taxpayer money being thrown at paid newspapers in regards to public notice laws in the State of North Carolina. One item that got the attention of the Guilford County Commissioners was the tax delinquency bill where we saw them save over $92,000 here is that report CLICKHERE

Let's dig deeper into the numbers the triad business journal has provided. As we see if you are really wanting public notices then you will need to get a weekly subscription to the Greensboro News and Record because they rarely show public notices on a Sunday edition which is it's most popular day they leave it for the obscure days of Monday and Tuesday for their public noticing. So let's take the population of Guilford County which is 506,610 and with the weekly circulation of 49,000 then that comes close to 10% of Guilford County residents are reading the News and Record in this County . I will even throw them a bone and double their readership to 20% for reading households of 2 who might read the paper. We also need to take into consideration the High Point Enterprise but did not have their circulation numbers for this report.

While doing a little google research I came across this from East Carolina University below :

A Decade of Change: Digital Technology and Internet Access in North Carolina

                                      1999 to 2010

                                               Kenneth Wilson, Ph.D.
                                       East Carolina University August 2010  

In the past decade, North Carolina has experienced an amazing transformation. In 1999, only 53 percent of households had home computers. By 2010 that figure has risen to 82 percent. In just eleven years, the proportion of homes without a computer has dropped 62 percent. In 1999, the proportion of all homes with Internet access was 36 percent but this has risen to 80 percent in 2010. In that same time frame, the proportion of homes without Internet access has dropped 69 percent .

We see that internet in the home has increased to 80% in North Carolina households while we keep on having to shell out taxpayer money to 20% of the population in Guilford County  to have public notices run in a paid paper when in reality we can save money to put this information online on government web sites all over this state.

It is time to modernize the public notice laws in this state and if you want to research more on this you can look under the public notice section with plenty written over the past few years. CLICKHERE

Also we need to remember that our good Senator Trudy Wade from Guilford County has a bill to help modernize Public Notice Laws in the State of North Carolina and needs our help in the short session . Will post more once we find out what is happening with the bill

Wake County Rep. Avila Guts Local Bill for Guilford County

Wake County House Rep. Marilyn Avila guts the whole local bill for Guilford County in regards to Electronic Notices to amend the bill to add language that was written by the N.C. Press Association. It passed on a 62-52 vote with plenty of clueless out of touch with reality N.C. House of Representatives voting with Head Cheerleader of the N.C. Press Association Avila. What you need to understand is that this bill was a local bill only for Guilford County and now we have the head cheerleader of the N.C. Press Association gutting a local bill and she doesn't even represent any constituents in this county. As we see in the write up from Travis Fain Greensboro News and Record "Bill Changing Legal Ads Notices Falters" . not one mention of this at all which is par for the course for the local press on this issue.

Let's look at what the N.C. Press Association President Hal Tanner III had to say in their july e newsletter about the head cheerleader in the North Carolina House of Representatives for the N.C Press Association earlier in the 2013 session  where this bill came up for a vote

"This has been a great year for newspapers across the state. I wish I could express how we felt listening to Rep. Marilyn Avila’s (R-Wake) speech on the House floor supporting newspapers during debate on SB287/HB504. It was a moment I will never forget and one of the highlights."

It was a moment for the N.C. Press Association to listen to themselves and their lobbyist who gave her plenty to say on the N.C. House floor in regards to the issue of electronic notices. The taxpayers of Guilford County can thank a Wake County Representative Avila for not saving the taxpayers of Guilford County over $500,000 that could go to some other program and the funny thing is that there are cities in Wake County who in past law have been given this opportunity to use electronic notices in  here is a post I did  with a title  "Electronic Notice is Good for Cary,Apex,Garner,Knightdale,and Raleigh is Good for Every other City in this State "
 . So as you see we had a Wake County Rep.Avila completely gut a local bill for Guilford County in regards to electronic notices while in her own county we have all these cities above have been able to use electronic notices the whole time. Is that fair? NO and points like this never came up in the discussion on the house floor. Maybe a Guilford County Representative can reverse one of these local bills to make them waste more taxpayer money to appease the BLOWHARDS at the N.C. Press Association.

I wanted to leave you with a report below the fold from the now gone but not forgotten Rhino Times where William Hammer was on point in regards to Senator Trudy Wade's Senate Bill #287 which was gutted by N.C. Press Association Head Cheerleader Wake County House Representative Republican Marilyn Avila.   

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Rhino Times
Wade's bill – allowing local governments in Mecklenburg, Wake, Guilford, Burke, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain and Union counties to post public notices required by law on their own websites rather than buying advertisements in paid circulation newspapers – passed the Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday, April 9, causing an uproar in the paid circulation newspaper industry.

Imagine what a great law that would be, regardless of what business you are in, if it required the city and county to do business with you. What if the state passed a law that Greensboro had to buy all of its coffee at a national chain of coffee shops that originated in Washington State and has a mermaid on its cups. Or what if the state had a law that all gasoline used by city vehicles had to be purchased at gas stations owned by a franchise that was started in Pennsylvania and sounds like a bad word mispronounced.

Can you imagine the outcry from the other coffee providers and gas stations? But the unbiased daily newspaper in town believes that local governments should be required by law to advertise public hearings, tax delinquencies and other such matters in the News & Record.

That is the kind of law that TECAN&R and every other major newspaper in the state has working for them. The law doesn't state that the City of Greensboro has to advertise in TECAN&R, but the way the newspaper where Greensboro has to advertise is defined, there is only one that meets all the criteria.

Wade's bill allows local governments to meet the legal requirement for advertising by placing a notice on its own website. It doesn't prevent any local government from running as many ads as it wants about anything, but local governments in Guilford the other counties will no longer be required by law to advertise in their local paid circulation newspapers.

The North Carolina Press Association is treating this bill like its First Amendment rights are being violated. But what the bill does is remove a government-sanctioned monopoly.

Since far more people have Internet access than subscribe to the daily newspapers, it seems like it is a way to reach more citizens. One of the arguments against the bill is that it is unfair to poor people because many can't afford a computer and don't have Internet access. That is true, but it is also true that not many poor people and very few homeless people subscribe to the daily newspaper.

This is a bill that will allow local governments to save hundreds of thousands of dollars. The other forms of notifying the public with signs on property to be rezoned and letters to nearby property owners remain unchanged. The bill only effects advertising in paid circulation newspapers.

The local government is free to experiment with notifying the public. In Greensboro a billboard on Battleground Avenue has attracted a lot of attention lately. Maybe that would be a good place to advertise an upcoming public hearing. Perhaps radio advertising would work, or even advertising in a free newspaper that is picked up and read by people all over Guilford County.


  

N.C. Press Lobbyist Lying To Committee in Regards to Guilford County Public Notice Bill

Greensboro City Councilman Tony Wilkins has heard some interesting news out of Raleigh N.C.where things are coming to a boil in regards to allowing local governments in Guilford County to have the option of using electronic notices to get information to the citizens in this county saving thousands and thousands of dollars each year. Travis Fain from the Greensboro News and Record has a report out today HERE

Here is the exchange between Councilman Tony Wilkins  and City Manager Denise Turner Roth that happened today.

Councilman Tony Wilkins:
Hey Denise,

 

Just wanted to clarify that I have been given some misinformation.

 

I got a call this morning that said the N&R lobbyist in Raleigh stated on the floor of the House yesterday that the city manager of Greensboro, Denise Roth, opposed the Electronics Notice Bill. The bill failed on a 10-10 vote.

 

I replied that could not be true because council voted unanimously to support the bill.

 

It comes back up today and I want to get word to Raleigh the information presented yesterday was false.

 

Please verify that you did not make that statement.

 

Thanks,

Tony Wilkins

 

RESPONSE from Greensboro City Manager Denise Turner Roth

 

You are correct Tony. I was just told the same thing this morning and was very upset. I have never had a conversation with anyone from the N&R about this bill. It floors me that my name has been used by them. I did speak with Rep. Adams this morning and explained that this item was supported by Council as part of its legislative agenda. I also explained from a management perspective, if we had this authority there were likely be some things we would seek to exercise it (posting electronic notices) for but there are some things we would likely keep posting in traditional news papers like rezoning cases. I also had the same conversation with Sen. Wade.

On a related matter, Alfrique with the Carolina Peacemaker called very upset a little while ago that the City Council is supporting this effort. I am preparing a message to go to all of Council as a heads up.

 

Denise Turner Roth, City Manager

City of Greensboro  

 

 

Triadwatch is trying to get to the bottom of this to find out which N.C. Press Association lobbyist member if LYING to the committee stating that a local Greensboro City Manager is opposed to this bill when in reality she works for the City of Greensboro and their legislative agenda for 2013 is for them to have the ability to use electronic notices without going through the mandated and outdated law that states you have to provide public information only in a paid paper of weekly circulation to qualify.

When can we see some legislators understand that it is time to think ahead for a change and start allowing counties who want them to provide public notices electronically to do so.  Senator Trudy Wade has been a stalwart on this issue along with plenty of other representatives like House Rep. Jon Hardister  from Guilford County as well. They have been out front with all of these bills and it looks like we might see a pilot program coming out of Guilford County in regards to public notices, they plan on voting on this tonight since it got out of the house committee and all the BLOWHARDS from the N.C. Press Association who are LYING to a committee to make this bill go away should be ashamed of themselves since all they are thinking is the mighty taxpayer funded state mandated dollar nothing else.

Can the N.C. Press Association understand that their government assisted state law gravy train is slowly coming to a end  and it is time for local city and county governments to provide this information to their constituents as they see fit and save taxpayer dollars to boot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

N.C. Press Blowhards Won Battle But Not War in Regards to Public Notices in North Carolina

The associated press"AP" is reporting this for all the newspapers with a headline "NC Newspapers Tout Win Over Public Notice Bill"

One bill that passed crossover in the North Carolina Legislature is Senate Bill #287 and is still alive in the North Carolina House of Representatives.

In the AP report this is said,"Rep. Marilyn Avila, R-Wake, successfully pushed for an amendment that replaced the whole bill with her own measure maintaining newspaper control but with discounted rates in cases of multiple notices and free Web publishing."


Here is a report from the NC Press blowhards

"The amendment to HB 755 was sponsored by Rep. Marilyn Avila (R)-Wake. Her amendment completely substituted the language of the DENR public notices bill with the language of HB 723, the NCPA-backed compromise bill.

The vote shown are on the amendment. The main bill, as amended,was not voted on by the House on May 15. The amendment was also being attached to HB 504 and SB 287. All three bills were re-referred to the House Rules Committee."

 

What is interesting to see is how the NC Press blowhards want to substitute their pathetic do nothing bill as a whole substitution and they want to attach this amendment to Senate Bill #287 if it comes in front of the NC House since this is the last bill standing that will save millions in taxpayer money all over this state.

What needs to be done is that the blowhards from NC Press can add this amendment house bill 723 to senate bill 287  but it WILL NOT COMPLETELY substitute the whole language that is already in Senate Bill 287. The NC Press blowhards can have their amendment added to the cities and counties who want to live in the 1940's and keep on wasting taxpayer money at a dying product but allow the cities and counties who understand this is 2013 and they can provide this information to their constituents and save the taxpayers million of dollars.

 

Senator Wade's Public Notice Bill #287 Headed to House Floor Next Week,

Senate Bill #287 with primary sponsor in Local Guilford Delegation Senator Dr. Trudy Wade is making it's way through the House side of the North Carolina Legislature and it looks like it will come up for a House vote on Tuesday May 14th 2013 . Here is a report from the North Carolina League of Municipalities who are in favor of this bill,

"Two bills advanced by the House Judiciary Subcommittee B Wednesday would grant certain counties and the municipalities wholly within those counties electronic notice authority. SB 287 Notice Publication by Some Local Govs and HB 504 Local Electronic Notice each grant specific counties and their municipalities the option of publishing legally required notices on their own websites and through other means, rather than purchasing advertising space in a print newspaper. Municipalities chose electronic notice authority as an advocacy goal because current law requires them to spend upwards of $4 million annually on newspaper advertising statewide, at a time when print newspaper readership is declining and newspaper readers are not looking for public notices. Both bills now head to the House floor likely next week. SB 287 has already passed the Senate and would become law if it is approved by the full House without any changes. HB 504 would still need Senate approval before becoming law."

Then we have the North Carolina Press Association who is having a conniption over the idea of saving taxpayers money and having local governments provide the public notice to their taxpayers, check out 
MEMBER ALERT on their front page.

 

Rhino Times Nails It in Regards to Our Local Paid Paper, N.C. Press Association Listen Up

John Hammer in this weeks edition of the Rhino Times Nails it again in a article titled "Wade Bad News for TECAN&R and CO."
In the article here is more in regards to the public notice bill #287 that our Guilford County Senator Dr. Wade has introduced for the senate that is on calendar for this coming Monday. Here is what was said:


The article and editorial had little to do with the White Street Landfill, but have a lot to do with hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue that TECAN&R stands to lose if Wade is successful in passing Senate Bill 387 that eliminates a law that virtually requires the City of Greensboro, Guilford County and other local units of the state government to buy ads from TECAN&R.

Wade's bill – allowing local governments in Mecklenburg, Wake, Guilford, Burke, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain and Union counties to post public notices required by law on their own websites rather than buying advertisements in paid circulation newspapers – passed the Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday, April 9, causing an uproar in the paid circulation newspaper industry.

Imagine what a great law that would be, regardless of what business you are in, if it required the city and county to do business with you. What if the state passed a law that Greensboro had to buy all of its coffee at a national chain of coffee shops that originated in Washington State and has a mermaid on its cups. Or what if the state had a law that all gasoline used by city vehicles had to be purchased at gas stations owned by a franchise that was started in Pennsylvania and sounds like a bad word mispronounced.

Can you imagine the outcry from the other coffee providers and gas stations? But the unbiased daily newspaper in town believes that local governments should be required by law to advertise public hearings, tax delinquencies and other such matters in the News & Record.

That is the kind of law that TECAN&R and every other major newspaper in the state has working for them. The law doesn't state that the City of Greensboro has to advertise in TECAN&R, but the way the newspaper where Greensboro has to advertise is defined, there is only one that meets all the criteria.

Wade's bill allows local governments to meet the legal requirement for advertising by placing a notice on its own website. It doesn't prevent any local government from running as many ads as it wants about anything, but local governments in Guilford the other counties will no longer be required by law to advertise in their local paid circulation newspapers.

The North Carolina Press Association is treating this bill like its First Amendment rights are being violated. But what the bill does is remove a government-sanctioned monopoly.

Since far more people have Internet access than subscribe to the daily newspapers, it seems like it is a way to reach more citizens. One of the arguments against the bill is that it is unfair to poor people because many can't afford a computer and don't have Internet access. That is true, but it is also true that not many poor people and very few homeless people subscribe to the daily newspaper.

This is a bill that will allow local governments to save hundreds of thousands of dollars. The other forms of notifying the public with signs on property to be rezoned and letters to nearby property owners remain unchanged. The bill only effects advertising in paid circulation newspapers.

The local government is free to experiment with notifying the public. In Greensboro a billboard on Battleground Avenue has attracted a lot of attention lately. Maybe that would be a good place to advertise an upcoming public hearing. Perhaps radio advertising would work, or even advertising in a free newspaper that is picked up and read by people all over Guilford County.
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Well said Mr. Hammer and on a side bar the state bill is #287 not #387 that Mr. Hammer said in article. The N.C. Press Association  is having a conniption over this bill and here is a link to their effort to keep their government subsidized gravy train intact click on PATHETIC

Senator Wade's Public Notice Local Bill #287 Passes Committee With Some Fireworks from N. C. Press

In todays North Carolina Local and State Government Committee was Senate Bill #287 which will allow local governments in certain counties to use their government web sites to send out public notices which is what needs to be done and at same the time save taxpayers money.

As Triadwatch has said before in plenty of post on this subject of
HERE   HERE   HERE   HERE   HERE   and a great one annotating the North Carolina Press Association HERE

In this taxpayer funded government subsidized gravy train it is time to start thinking about the future of public notices it is not 1949 it is 2013 and how we reach the masses while at the same time saving taxpayer money to boot. Advertising in local paid papers is way too expensive and does not reach the audience needed especially when subscriptions are falling faster than Mayor of Greensboro Robbie Perkins bank account.

We also learn that there was some fireworks in regards to the committee meeting today here is what was reported from the Raleigh News and Observer post out today

The committee passed the measure by voice vote. Bussian, the press association lobbyist, said the committee voted 6-5 to reject the measure. Tucker, the chair, rejected a subsequent appeal for a show of hands and declared the meeting adjourned.

At that point, Hal Tanner, publisher of the Goldsboro News-Argus, approached Tucker. He told him he thought the vote was handled in a manner inconsistent with Republican stands for open government.

“I said, ‘We just got through dealing with Jim Black,’ ” Tanner later recalled, referring to the former Democratic House speaker jailed on corruption charges.
“I’m not Jim Black, I’m not Jim Black,” an angry Tucker replied. Senate rules prohibit roll call votes in committee.

Later, in an email to members, the press association quoted Tucker telling Tanner: “I am the senator. You are the citizen. You need to be quiet.”

Tucker disputes the quote.
“I said something to the effect that, ‘I’m the senator here, let me finish,’ ” he said. “I just took offense to it because he impugned our integrity. And I took it personally.”  The North Carolina Press Association needs to take off it's blinders to this whole public notice issue and understand that they are motivated by the greed of the taxpayer money and not even thinking about the public because it they did then we would not see all this backtracking on saying now they will start putting public notices online free of charge . The N.C. Press and all of it's blowhards should have provided this information online by themselves to inform the public not after the fact as we see in them having a bill to have them put notices online.  The irony from the North Carolina Press Association having 3 Wake County house representatives provide the dumb bill of the year in House Bill #723 with   Rep. Marilyn Avila (R)-Raleigh; Rep. Jim Fulghum (R)-Raleigh  are sponsors of this bill where we find out that Raleigh North Carolina has passed a bill over 10 years ago in regards to public notice laws. The triadwatch post this titled "Electronic Notice is Good for Cary,Apex,Garner,Knightdale,and Raleigh is Good for Every other City in this State "  What is good for Raleigh is good for every other city and county in this state and it is time we pass these new public notice laws . Thanks to all the Senators who stood up to the bully pulpit from the BLOWHARDS from the North Carolina Press Association.

WAIT A MINUTE WAIT A MINUTE THE NORTH CAROLINA PRESS ASSOCIATION HAS A MEMBER ALERT MEMBER ALERT WATCH OUT here come the bullies and their talking points.

 

Guilford County Rep. Jon Hardister Files Public Notice Bill #504 in House Side of North Carolina Legislature on April 2, 2013

 

Guilford County North Carolina State Representative District #59 Jon Hardister is a primary sponsor of House Bill #504 titled "local electronic notice". This bill on the house side along with the help of another Guilford County Representative in Senator Dr. Wade with her being a primary sponsor of bill #186 then to be safe she also filed a local bill in regards to public notice bills for Guilford County in bill #287 .

 

The House Bill #504 is a local bill and will only be a part of counties consisting of BUNCOMBE, GUILFORD, HENDERSON, MECKLENBURG, MITCHELL, PERQUIMANS, STANLY, SURRY, WAKE.

 

Triadwatch has devoted a lot of time to this issue trying to help save taxpayers monies that does not need to be spent. As I was quoted in a news article in the Greensboro News and Record on Monday April 1, 2013 in regards to the tax delinquency bill we pay in this county that cost us for one day close to $97,000, here is what I had to say;

 

"“It’s not 1949 anymore, it’s not 1969, it’s 2013,” Brown said Friday. “This information is already available online 24 hours a day from the tax department instead of one day a year in a newspaper advertisement that costs $97,000. Anyone who doesn’t have a computer or Internet can go to their local library and see this information.”

 

I would like to thank Rep. Hardister for being a primary sponsor on this bill and we see a change for the better in regards to public notices in this state and at the same time saving taxpayers monies on not having to publish in paid newspapers. If you would like to see more on this issue here are a few post

CLICKHERE

 

CLICKHERE

 and

HERE

 

and it also looks like the gloves are off and the N.C. Press Association has their

RED SIREN BILL ALERT in regards to House Bill #504 and Senate Bill #186 and they might need to know about Senate Bill #287 as well.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens but I urge all residents of any county in North Carolina to get in touch with your representative to let them know it is time to save tax money and pass these bills.

To get in touch with your representative you can see this interactive map titled

WHO REPRESENTS ME?

 

 

 

 

 

 

TENNESSEE-Dumbest Legal Notice Bill Yet. Newspapers Must Post Notices Online. Saves No Taxpayer Money and Mandates Nothing New.

HAT TIP LEGAL NOTICE ONLINE

TENNESSEE-Dumbest Legal Notice Bill Yet. Newspapers Must Post Notices Online. Saves No Taxpayer Money and Mandates Nothing New.

We've been covering legal notice bills for over 2 years and thought we've seen every possible bill proposed. The State Senate of Tennessee further wasted legislators' time and taxpayers' money by approving Senate Bill 461, sponsored by State Senator Ken Yager which changes absolutely nothing. There are no savings for the cash-strapped municipalities because the newspapers continue to charge outrageous rates for print notices in newspapers with dwindling circulations. The Newspapers of Tennessee already publish legal notices on a little used website and many of them already publish them on their own websites.
So then why bring up the bill? Because newspapers in the future want to be able to defend their franchise against online-only public notice bills by saying "why change the bill, it's in the law that we already publish notices online?"
Over $1 million per year is wasted in Tennessee publishing legal notices in print.
Surprisingly (ha ha) the Tennessee Newspaper Association supports this bill because they continue to be subsidized by local governments placing notices in their newspapers at an absurd markup. 
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It also looks like our Western North Carolina editors are also chiming in on what we see Senator Dr. Wade and her public notice bill #186. The Cherokee Scout had a editorial on keeping government in sunshine CLICKHERE . In the editorial was this:

"While we hope SB 186 will not pass, there is a compromise proposed in the state House of Representatives that could end the long battle over public notices.

    The soon-to-be-proposed bill would require all public notices continue to be published in a newspaper of paid general circulation and also require all public notices to be published on the newspaper’s Web site as well as on a statewide Web site maintained by the N.C. Press Association. The compromise also provides a 15 percent reduction in price for publishing all notices required by law that run more than once and whose cost is not borne by private parties.

    We urge state Sen. Jim Davis (R-Franklin) to defeat SB 186 and get behind the upcoming House bill. "

As you see from the above editorial and what you see in Tennessee this will save no money and keeps the status quo for the paid monopolistic taxpayer funded money train to newspapers all over this state.

Davidson News Editor David Boraks Speaks on Public Notice BIll in North Carolina

While looking over the internet in regards to public notices in North Carolina I came along this post from May 14, 2011 on a web site called Global Vue about journalism and technology titled "N.C. legislators turn back effort to take legal notices out of newspapers".

What grabbed me was a comment from the editor of the Davidson News in David Boraks . I made a call to David Boraks and he allowed me to publish his comment which is very relevant today and if we are going to discuss upcoming public notice bills in the State of North Carolina like
 Senate Bill 186. Here is what was said

There’s another angle on this, which hasn’t been discussed much. In some communities, there is no viable print product with wide reach that could reasonably meet the spirit of the legal notice requirements.

Let’s remember the goal: The public notice law is there to ensure that a wide audience of local readers has access to legal notices. While it currently requires print publication, that may be outdated in some places.

In Davidson, the closest qualifying paper is a weekly in the next town over that has little or no circulation in Davidson (I hear it sells a dozen copies here). But it meets the letter of the law. So the town of Davidson spends thousands of dollars a year on ads that nobody in town will ever see. The scare tactics of the print-press lobby just don’t hold water here.

The legislation under consideration would allow towns and counties to use their own websites. That does not strike me as an unreasonable option. One of the newspaper industry arguments against the bill is that some people or some communities may not have internet access and would be cut off. This assumes people have access to the newspaper where the notices are published. (Again, what if your town publishes its legal notices in a publication that doesn’t circulate in your town? Or what if the majority of citizens don’t subscribe to papers?)

Once, newspapers were a reasonable option, because household penetration exceeded 80 or even 100 percent (more than one newspaper per household). But today, newspaper penetration is one-third of that, and in some communities is below 20 percent. Newspapers (the printed version) are no longer the mass medium they once were. In fact, internet penetration in most communities today far exceeds that of newspapers. So it’s not really fair to say that ending newspaper publication of legal notices is the end of the world. A good publicity campaign can ensure that citizens know that their town or county website is the place to go for legal notices.

There also may be other options. Instead of fighting to keep an outdated law that protects legacy print media, we as a new industry should be pushing for a law that opens this up to legitimate community-based online sources. For many newspapers, online sites now have more readers than print products. We should be fighting for a law that requires online notices on general interest local websites. This could include the websites of daily newspapers, weeklies, etc. (Of course what’s missing right now, though, are standards for what amount of web traffic would be required and how it should be measured.)

Of course I have a vested interest: I publish a daily online news website in our town. According to our traffic numbers, we reach a large percentage of households in Davidson, and we could be a viable alternative for legal notices. But that’s not allowed under the current law and would not be required under the proposed legislation in NC right now. And it’s not clear whether the town would choose to post legals on our site.

If the newspaper lobby would consider adapting to a new local information reality, one that includes online, we’d still have strong arguments to make. The most important would be to address the question of whether town or county websites are adequate. In Davidson, town leaders acknowledge that DavidsonNews.net reaches more readers than the town website. If the test were who reaches the most local citizens, our site would be the logical solution. I’d love to see a bill with language that requires online publication and, if available, in an online community publication that meets (yet to be determined) traffic standards.
_____________________________________________________________________

Great points by David Boraks and in the future hopefully more indviduals like David will be at the table talking about new and better ways to get public notices out to the masses and maybe along the way save taxpayers in this state money that does not need to be spent on the paid newspaper publication of public notices.

Did You See the $80,000 Waste of Taxpayers Money in Today's Greensboro News and Record?

Did you happen to see the insert in the Greensboro News and Record today which is the yearly waste of over $96,000 of your taxpayers money. Triadwatch has a public records request for this years final figures from the Guilford County Tax Department which might take a month to get the bills from the Greensboro News and Record, High Point Enterprise, and Carolina Peacemaker with them publishing the tax delinquency of citizens in Guilford County.

Each county and municipality has to by law under North Carolina General Statute 105-369 publish this in a paid newspaper. How many of you actually cared about looking at this insert in today's paper? Some of these North Carolina laws are such a waste of taxpayers money and having public notices in a dying circulation is not the future of public notices in the State of North Carolina.

We do have our newest member of the North Carolina Senate from Guilford County Dr. Trudy Wade introduce her first bill as a primary sponsor Senate Bill #186 which happens to be a public notice bill and hopefully we can get some momentum behind this bill for it to pass and become law.

If there was ever a complete waste of taxpayers money all you needed to do was pick up today's Greensboro News and Record to see the 21 page insert of tax delinquency in Guilford County but one thing that is known is you can see this on a 24-7 basis on the Guilford County Tax Department Web Site . Hopefully you are lucky to pick up today's paper to see this 21 page insert because tomorrow you will not see it at all and as we can also see from the updated Greensboro News and Record web site public notices are so important to them that they did not make one section for public notices be a part of their revised web site. We can see that the Charlotte Observer partnered with legal notice.org  to provide this information for their web content and added a public notices section. Will we see any changes from our local paper? I doubt it.

This blog post brought to you by triad citizens against government waste.

Electronic Notice is Good for Cary,Apex,Garner,Knightdale,and Raleigh is Good for Every other City in this State

North Carolina Senator Dr. Trudy Wade is a primary sponsor of Senate Bill #186 in regards to public notices in the State of North Carolina. What makes this bill so significant is that we have other cities that have enacted local bills in the past to allow them to have electronic notices. For example way back in 2003 Raleigh and Lake Waccamaw had this bill passed

SESSION LAW 2003-161

SENATE BILL 292

AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF RALEIGH AND THE TOWN OF LAKE
WACCAMAW TO USE ELECTRONIC MEANS TO PROVIDE PUBLIC

NOTICE FOR CERTAIN PUBLIC HEARINGS.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  

 

Section 22 of the Charter of the City of Raleigh, being Chapter
1184 of the 1949 Session Laws, as amended, is amended by adding the following new

subsection:

"(87) Electronic Notice of Hearings. The City Council may adopt ordinances

providing that notice of public hearings may be given through electronic means,

including, but not limited to, the City's Internet site. Ordinances adopted pursuant to this

section shall not supersede any State law that requires notice by mail to certain classes

of people or the posting of signs on certain property and shall not alter the publication

schedule for any public notice."

SECTION 2. The governing body of the Town of Lake Waccamaw may
adopt ordinances providing that notice of public hearings may be given through

electronic means, including, but not limited to, the Town's Internet site. Ordinances

adopted pursuant to this section shall not supersede any State law that requires notice by

mail to certain classes of people or the posting of signs on certain property and shall not

alter the publication schedule for any public notice.

SECTION 3. This act is effective when it becomes law.
 

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 5

th day of June,
2003.
______________________________________________________________________

Then we also have another bill that was passed in 2007 in Senate Bill #1579  which allowed the towns of Apex, Cary, Garner and Knightdale to have the means of using electronic notices .

These local cities are saving taxpayers money by having the ability to use their own local web site to publish public notices. It is time for every other city and county to also have this ability to do the same thing. What is good for these cities is good for the whole State of North Carolina.

N.C. Senator Dr. Wade introduces Public Notice Bill #186 in Regards to Publication by Counties and Cities in North Carolina

North Carolina Senator Dr. Trudy Wade introduces a bill today in regards to public notices for counties and cities in the State of North Carolina . Here is a link to the bill and also at the end of this blog post will be the whole bill in a scribd version CLICKHERE.

Public Notice laws in the State of North Carolina needed to upgrade to the computer age . Seeing a bill like this will help in this process. I would like to thank Senator Wade for introducing this important bill to save the taxpayers of this state millions of dollars . We will see how this bill moves through the Senate and will update you on how the N.C. Press Association will cry foul on this bill and it is time to see the taxpayers assisted paid papers money train go bye bye.

________________________________________________________________________________

Senator Dr. Wade Public Notice Bill by

Gas Tax for Free and The N.C. Board of Election Lawyer in Never Never Land

Let's start off this post to say that there should never be a time where a candidate for local, state or federal office in a campaign buys gas or any other item just to make a point because to many people this could be considered buying your vote.

We have seen a lot talked about this issue and the local TV station in News 2 do some inquiring with the State Board of Elections for a report that was very interesting to listen to here is that report CLICKHERE.

Then we have the State Board of Elections lawyer Don Wright send me this via email:
________________________________________________________________________________

 Here is the first of two e-mails. I have added the article about recent cases about the need for quid pro quo.

http://www.citizensforethics.org/policy/entry/the-supreme-court-eviscerates-the-honest-services-statute

See out below

Don Wright

The Supreme Court Eviscerates the "Honest Services" Statute

Courts have long interpreted the mail fraud and wire fraud statutes (18 U.S.C. §§ 1341-1351) as criminalizing not only schemes to defraud victims of money and property, but also schemes to defraud victims of intangible rights such as "honest services."

The statute, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 1346, provided that a "scheme or artifice to defraud" includes a "scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services." Critics of § 1346 suggest that honest services fraud is a made-up crime with no real foundation. Courts, however, have found violations when there has been a breach of duty of loyalty, an intent to deceive, and conflicts of interest while taking official action that furthers that undisclosed interest, or when there has been undisclosed self-dealing, as well as when someone has received a bribe or kickback from a third party as a quid pro quo for some advantage from the employer.

Last term, the Supreme Court heard three cases concerning the honest services fraud statute: Black v. United States, Weyhrauch v. United States, and Skilling v. United States. On June 24, 2010, as anticipated, the Court sharply limited the scope of § 1346, invalidating the use of the statute except in cases involving bribery and kickbacks. Skilling v. United States, 561 U. S. __ (2010).

The ruling is a devastating blow that deprives prosecutors of an important tool in their efforts to fight public corruption and a disaster for good political governance. Prosecutors have long used § 1346 to target public officials who engage in malfeasance without evidence of a quid pro quo - the direct exchange of an official act for something of value. Honest services fraud typically has been charged when politicians have been offered a stream of value: i.e. meals, tickets and trips in exchange for a series of acts, but prosecutors are unable to tie any specific gift to a specific official act.

Despite the Court's assertion that the core of the honest services statute remains intact, a rash of prior convictions likely will be vacated and in the future, corrupt officials will have an easier time escaping accountability for their misdeeds. If Congress fails to rectify this disastrous decision, a broad range of public corruption will be largely immune from federal prosecution.

The Supreme Court stated specifically that if Congress wants to allow honest services fraud to be used in cases beyond those involving bribes and kickbacks, it needs to specify exactly what conduct is prohibited.

-----Original Message-----
From: Melvin, Lauren [mailto:lmelvin@wfmy.gannett.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 12:08 PM
To: Bartlett, Gary
Cc: Wright, Don; McLean, Johnnie
Subject: Re: Question regarding Trudy Wade for Senate event

Ok, thank you.

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 18, 2012, at 12:04 PM, "Bartlett, Gary" ncsbe.gov<mailto:Gary.Bartlett@ncsbe.gov>> wrote:

Not a violation using signs, shirts and caps. This is a freedom of speech issue protected by the Bill of Rights. There was no quid-quo-pro in offering something of value in turn for their vote. It was open to the first 100 people regardless of age, citizenship, voting status or party.

From: Melvin, Lauren [mailto:lmelvin@wfmy.gannett.com]

Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 2:40 PM

To: Bartlett, Gary

Subject: Question regarding Trudy Wade for Senate event

Dear Mr. Bartlett,

Regarding the “Trudy Wade for Senate” campaign event in Whitsett this past Saturday…I know you advised Ms. Wade that her discounted gas event was lawful, but also offered this warning:

"Please note that if you or your campaign verbalizes or acts in a manner that could be reasonably construed as requesting a person's vote in conjunction with the event, those facts could put you or your campaign in violation of the law."

Our television station did attend this event, where Ms. Wade and all of her volunteers were wearing “Trudy Wade for Senate” shirts. There were also “Trudy Wade for Senate” signs displayed at the event.

You can find our story here:

<http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=224992>http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=224992

Additionally, a viewer brought this to my attention as well.

Please explain -- how is this different from soliciting votes?

Thanks,

Lauren Melvin

Lauren Melvin

WFMY News 2

__________________________________________________________________________________

Then we see from the News 2 report where the Chairman of the State Board of Election Gary Bartlett chimed in on the issue of State Senate candidate Dr. Trudy Wade's workers who were wearing t shirts and signs promoting Trudy Wade for Senate all over the publicity stunt. 

Here's what State Board of Elections Executive Director Gary Bartlett said:
"Not a violation using signs, shirts and caps. This is a freedom of speech issue protected by the Bill of Rights. There was no quid-quo-pro in offering something of value in turn for their vote. It was open to the first 100 people regardless of age, citizenship, voting status or party."
Hence, there was no violation

Getting this type of ruling opens up the Pandora's box for any candidate all over the state to do whatever they want to do as long as you do not say "VOTE FOR " which will be considered a quid pro quo but let's give you another issue that can happen which will be legal even in this senate race.

One of the other candidates is Justin Conrad who's family owns the Libby Hill Seafood Restaurants all over the triad and they have some restaurants in the area where he is campaigning for the senate seat. Now under the direction of our Board of Election it would be illegal for Justin Conrad to say vote for me and i will give you a free meal at Libby Hill. But let's give you a scenario that would be acceptable to the State Board of Election. Let's say that the election will be next Tuesday and Justin Conrad has well over $10,000 in his campaign coffers it would be legal under what the state is saying for Justin Conrad to have signs in front of Libby Hill to say Justin Conrad for Senate along with all his waiters and waitresses to have t shirts on as well and when the patrons of Libby Hill come up to the counter to pay they could let the people know that Justin Conrad paid for your meal and that would be legal under that State Board of Elections. How absurd.

Let's take it to the worse case scenario on this issue where you could feasibly sit outside a polling booth and hand out $10 bills to people walking by and just say Justin Conrad wants to say have a blessed day and this would be legal under the direction of the BOZOS from the State Board of Elections.

The State Board of Election along with their lead Attorney Don Wright are dead wrong on this issue and if they proceed with similar rulings it will open up a whole new can of worms and the State Legislature needs to tighten up these laws to never have a situation before a election where a candidate is paying for people's gas during campaign season or any season for that matter.

Senate Candidate Trudy Wade Buying Gas or Is This Legal?

District #27 Senate Candidate Dr. Trudy Wade has a press release that was sent to the Greensboro News and Record today. In the article was this:


"A candidate for the state Senate will pump gas and pay the taxes for 100 vehicles that line up at the Citgo station at Stoney Creek Village at 6305 Burlington Road. The campaign event for Trudy Wade starts at 9 a.m. Saturday.
The Wade campaign said customers will pay for their own gas but Wade will pay the state and federal taxes up to a maximum of 20 gallons per vehicle."

My question is this, Is it legal for a candidate on any level to pay for a citizens gas or pepsi product or any other item during a campaign season? To some people this could come across as trying to buy votes with paying for the gas tax. I am sure that it is well intentioned to highlight the high gas prices we pay in this state but to be paying for the gas tax on maybe a future voter in a race for the senate seat brings up a multiple questions in this press release that was on the Greensboro News and Record  and also Yes!Weekly web site. This would be a great question to ask the State Board of Elections.

Dr. Wade Gets Endorsement from Competitor's Uncle

In the new North Carolina Senate Seat #27 with Greensboro City Council member Dr. Trudy Wade competing against High Point Councilman Latimer Alexander and local businessman  Justin Conrad .

It seems like Dr. Wade got a early endorsement from the uncle of Justin Conrad. Here is the quote in the endorsements section of Dr. Wade's web site.

"Dr. Trudy Wade is an experienced conservative leader who needs to be in the North Carolina Senate. Some people may wonder why I have endorsed Trudy Wade, knowing that I have family in the primary. Actually, that places me in an even better position to know that Trudy Wade is the tried, tested, and true conservative leader who should be representing the people of the 27th district in the North Carolina Senate."

-David P. Conrad

This will be a great race to follow.

"BREAKING: Mayor-elect BREAKING says resolution BREAKING to seating dispute BREAKING is reached: BREAKING"

"BREAKING

Greensboro Mayor-elect Robbie Perkins
called to say a resolution has been reached
to what he called "seating-gate,"
a dispute between himself and District 5 City Councilwoman Trudy Wade.

BREAKING

Jeff Hyde on Hiding of Raffle Winner, It Keeps On Going and Going and Going

This raffle issue with N.C. Senate candidate Jeff Hyde is like the energizer bunny it keeps on going and going and going. Here is a little back post on this issue from July 19, 2010 with a title of post "Jeff Hyde Campaign and the Mysterious Raffle Winner, Who is the Winner?" CLICKHERE .

Now we have a article in this weeks Rhino Times with a title "Hyde Raffle Report Still Raises Questions", CLICKHERE . In this article John Hammer had this to say:

 "The problems started when the raffle was won by Hyde's sister Becky Smith, a fact that he would not confirm until last week when he was told that it was a matter of public record in a memo from the North Carolina State Board of Elections.



And it gets worse. Hyde's sister didn't buy a ticket and didn't want the $5,000 that she won in the raffle, so the campaign never awarded a prize and just kept the $5,000. The campaign has raised about $28,000 total, so $5,000 is a considerable amount of the campaign finances and, according to the reports currently filed, there was no $5,000 payout and no $5,000 donation. "


Finally we find out that Becky Smith is Jeff Hyde's sister, but wait it gets better. Later in the article here is what was written:

"This week Hyde said he and his wife bought 10 tickets, his father bought one ticket and a cousin bought two tickets. They all had the last name Hyde and accounted for 13 of the 83 raffle tickets sold. Hyde said that in case one of the tickets bought by a family member won, they thought it would be better if the winner announced was not named Hyde, so they put his sister's name on all 13 tickets. She had a pretty good chance of winning, since her name was on 13 of 83 tickets, or almost 16 percent of the tickets."


Now we see that he wants to put every person with a last name hyde under the name of his sister becky smith for the raffle. If we take what was said above in that jeff and his wife bought 10 tickets then on his campaign returns it does show $1,000 between the 2 of them but it was not designated for raffle as some other people who did give to his campaign in the returns. Also , if the raffle tickets cost $100 a piece and we see that his father bought a raffle ticket but on his campaign returns it shows a Richard C. Hyde from Gastonia N.C. with a $27.00 contribution well below the $100 raffle contribution he was advertising. If you look at his blog he had a campaign to get $27 by the 27th for the 27th district of April not for his raffle. So if Richard Hyde is his father then he didn't give to the raffle either but was counted in the raffle.

When you have contests and other raffles there are plenty of rules like for example no family members or people who work for the companies can win prizes or raffles. This raffle is a great example of why no family members should be able to win and Jeff Hyde knew better but has wanted to hide this for a long time now. All he needed to do is come clean at the beginning and plenty of us who look at campaign laws and returns would have said ok it was a novice mistake but now we see there is more to the story from the Rhino Times and below is the scribd version of the Jeff Hyde's campaign returns with the raffle members who did give on his returns

jeff hyde committee 2010 campaign report second quarter


North Carolina campaign laws doesn't talk about using raffles for your campaigns but even in Guilford County we have had a few others use a raffle to get campaign contributions from Trudy Wade to Lisa Ingle Clapp. If we can consider what has happened in the Jeff Hyde raffle and what has not been reported on his campaign returns where we all know that he needs to amend his returns and show that his sister did give a $5,000 contribution for winning the raffle then this would have cleared up all of this a long time ago.

It also might be time to let our state legislatures know that we might need some ground rules on who can win from campaign raffles or if you do have a raffle to get campaign money then the campaigner and his family members cannot be a part of the raffle for reasons like what we have seen in this issue with the Jeff Hyde Committee.