Making Public Notices that much more Public
The Gazette is advocating something I have been thinking about for a while now. I was just thinking of writing on this subject, honest!One of the public awareness issues that Evansville has long struggled with is public notices. State Law requires that municipalties post advance notice on meetings, zonings, conditional use permits, variance requests, and a few other things both in a physical accessible location (typically City Hall) as well as in a newpaper that meets certain criteria (I wonder how long before the League of Municipalities takes up this issue? It would be far cheaper, however, to post the notices on the web than print them in the paper. Arguably, if a City is doing their website in house (or at least has update access to it), posting notices shouldn't be any additional work than preparing them for a newspaper.
Am I advocating such a shift? Not really, but it is something that I think will gain momentum - especially with increased pressures placed on budgets. Evansville now spends $900/month for the Review to publish notices - that's $10,800/year or half a police car or one fourth of a Public Works shed or the cost to asphalt a block - or four computers, etc. Doesn't seem like much money?? I doubt the Finance Committee has changed much other than faces from when I chaired it but those items would be cause for a hour long discussion - don't underestimate temptation of being able to save $10,800!
Of course the Gazette is arguing to replace newspaper notices with the web, that would be counter to their business objectives. But savvy city officials looking to save a buck or 10,000 might jump to that conclusion.
posted by Walton @ 4:04 PM
5 Comments:
Exactly the issue - would shifting to the web suddenly exclude a large constituency that relies on print media for public notice? A couple years ago, the answer was obviously yes. Today? Still probably yes, but not by near the margin.
I would hope that any shift would start with using both print and online media for period of time before phasing out the print.
It would be an interesting Legislative debate (since that's where it has to start) -- I wonder if the powerhouse print media corporations (Milwaukee J-S, Madison S-J/C-T, etc) would mount a large challenge or not.
The other part of Mason's question is, "How many people check out the postings in the lobby of the Police station?"
The last time I checked (most of a year ago) the notices in the Police station were more than a month out of date in some cases, the binder in the Library was not complete and the postings in City Hall had gaps.
Posting Agendas, Notices and Minutes to a website should be a matter of converting a Word file to PDF and a few clicks in the template.
I don't think the Web should replace a newspaper of record but I think that anything that gets the word out can only improve participation and understanding.
The physical posting of notices has always been an issue - personally I always thought it was an attitude of those who need to know will hear about it (or at that time, just call Bob Poff). I have no doubt that much of the City is still run on an "word of mouth" process - that's the nature of small towns. Since we have a Mayor who apparently is not web-friendly and a City newspaper that has no web presence, I wouldn't expect the attitude to cahnge very quickly.
That being said, I commend the City for putting a lot more information on their website than used to be there. The color scheme and layout are not my tastes, but the info available is quite good and is a marked improvement from the old site.
During my two years as Chair of Finance and Labor, I too questioned the necessity of being forced to pay for publishing, when the web is so much cheaper (cost of someone's time to input).
One of the first things I did was to look into our 'contract' with The Review. It was purely economics that fueled my interest, not the Review's content. I maintain it's a slippery slope to China when the State tries to control the media. In any event, it quickly became apparent that I would not be able to lower our costs and keep the same amount of content by switching to another publication. I called other municipalities of similar size to find out their publication costs, and ours were in line and often cheaper. I regret I did this two years ago, and now I can't find my notes. I trust a duplication of my efforts would find the same results today.
I then spent some time lobbying Brett Davis and Jon Erpenbach to allow for Internet publication only, arguing that our Library offers Internet access for those who do not have it. After a few requests, they both came out and told me they do not agree with me and they will not vote to eliminate the requirement to publish notices in papers. And there I had it.
Another argument for spending the money to publish in a local paper is the economic multiplier affect it has on the local economy. I haven’t seen the numbers exactly but it would look something like…we pay $900 to the paper and that causes an increase of ‘x’ number of subscriptions which equals $X more to the paper, which hires a local writer, who uses that income to shop in town. It also increases readership, which increases the number of advertisers, which increases again the $ to the paper and also brings in money to the advertisers from the consumer readers who saw the ads and made purchases. So our $900 payment may actually result a $4,000 jolt to the economy. Something to think about. I saw such figures worked out for Monroe. They compared a 25 person Cheese maker to a Walmart with 100 employees and the money generated by the cheese factory many times over out measured the Walmart contribution to the local economy. It was astonishing.
I think care should be taken by Aldermen to notice if another has posted. It seems like the Internet poses a threat of violation of the open meeting laws if more than one alder adresses a topic. I understand Fred has put his blog spot off limits to other alders so as to avoid conflict. I would hate to lose this valuable communication tool by having the Council request all Alders to stop posting.
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