News

Apodaca highlights support for Sunshine bill

Sen. Tom Apodaca (R-Henderson) speaks at a press conference Tuesday in Raleigh about bills in the N.C. Senate and House that would ensure continued access to public notices using both print and digital means. Access to public notices is under threat by lo

By By Dennis Hill/The (Goldsboro) News Argus, Published: March 18, 2015

RALEIGH — A bill introduced in the Legislature would maintain the requirement that local governments publish legal notices in newspapers while also forcing newspapers to give them a discount on second publication and post the notices free online.

State Sen. Tom Apodaca, a Hendersonville Republican, led a Sunshine Week news conference to announce the bill on Tuesday. The option pushed by cities and counties to publish such notices only on their own websites, he said, limits the reach.
"In my opinion, until everyone has that option (of Internet access) available to them, we must still get the word out, and I think this bill will do that," he said. "I think this bill protects the public and the media."
"We would all like to have high speed Internet, we would all like to access records immediately," he added, "but some folks don't have that ability. Until everyone has that opportunity available to them, for high speed Internet, we must still do certain things to get news out and I think this bill will accomplish that."
Rep. Marilyn Avila, a Wake County Republican and the chief House sponsor, echoed that sentiment.
"We need to keep all lines of communication open," she said. "I don't think it is our job to limit in any way, or hide, by default, the information the citizens need about what their government is doing."
Municipal and county officials say the existing requirement is outdated and that posting such notices on their websites would be sufficient public notice. Their supporters have introduced a measure that would do away with the requirement to have legal notices published in print.
Sen. Norman Sanderson, who represents Carteret, Craven and Pamlico counties, is one of the primary sponsors of the bill.
"To me this is and always has been a point of transparency," he said. "Those of us who have been elected to serve the public, we have a responsibility to inform the public about what we are doing."
Sanderson said that technology is headed toward a day when all notices will be published digitally but that to move too quickly in that direction would be to "disenfranchise" a large portion of the public.
Rep. Chris Malone of Wake County is another sponsor in the House.
"Yes, I think one day we will be able to go electronically," he said. "But we're nowhere near that right now. People like to read their newspapers. ... They need to know that information and they have a right to it."
Senate Bill 129 and House Bill 156 call for newspapers to provide a 15 percent discount when notices have to be published more than once. And notices must be placed on the newspaper's website the same day it appears in print, at no additional charge. A hyperlink to notices would be placed on the newspaper's homepage at no charge. Notices have to be prominent and "present the legal notices as the dominant subject matter of those pages."