Committee closes in on recommendations for changes to public notice laws

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A committee studying possible changes to the state’s public notice statutes will be reviewing and voting on recommendations to the state Legislature in coming weeks.

At the committee’s meeting Monday, members agreed to have state attorneys draft two proposed changes to the state’s public-notice statutes.

One change the committee agreed to would apply to municipalities that now do not have an official newspaper and choose to publish online. At a minimum, those municipalities would have to have easily identifiable links leading to the public-notice sections of their websites.

Municipalities subject to this proposal would be only those that are now allowed to post notices in three public places instead of in a newspaper. Current law allows municipalities to post the notices online but does not have minimum requirements for what features have to appear on municipal websites.

The second proposed change calls for modifying the insertion requirements for notices that now must run in print for two consecutive weeks or more. Under current law, the entire notice must be published in full every time.

The proposal recommended Monday would require local governments to publish a public notice in full only for the first insertion. In subsequent insertions, the government would have the option of summarizing the public notice and including four references to where the full notice could be found.

The references would state where the notice could be physically found in its entirety, a link to the Wisconsin Newspaper Association’s database, a link to the local government’s website and the details of when and where the first notice ran in a newspaper.

State attorneys will now draft bills that would make those changes should they eventually be approved by entire lawmakers and signed by the governor. Before going before the Legislature, though,the bills will be sent back to the study committee, whose members will vote by mail on the draft language.

Committee chairman and State Rep. John Spiros, R-Marshfield, said the hope is that Monday’s meeting is the last time the committee will have to convene. Even so, Spiros might have to bring the study committee back together if the members end up calling for tweaks.

The committee considered two other proposals, but both failed on a roll-call vote Monday. Rep. Andre Jacque, R-DePere, made a motion to propose that the state pay for legal notices. That motion failed 3-8.

The committee also wrangled over a proposal that would allow certain public notices, such as notices of proceedings, to list nothing more than a web address showing where citizens could find online the substance of a particular government proceeding.

Notices of proceedings such as city council meetings are the most expensive notices to run. This is largely because the law requires the publication of a summary of the proceedings. The details that have to be listed a council include information such as who moved a motion, who seconded and who voted in each roll call vote, said Maribeth Witzel-Behl, city clerk for Madison.

Whitzel-Behl also noted that the notices, which are typically printed in a newspaper, have small type that is easier to read on a computer screen.

Most people pick up information contained in the public notices from news articles and headlines, said Caroline Burmaster, Onalaska city clerk. Burmaster said she supported the proposal to shorten the notice.

Other committee members, though, argued that shortening the public notices would make them less accessible to the public and erode government transparency.

Now is not the time to make such changes, said Tim Lyke, publisher of The Ripon Commonwealth Press.

“I think it’s false equivalency that news reporting is better than a legal notice,” he said. “They really are not the same thing.”

The proposal failed in a 6-5 roll-call vote. Follow @erikastrebel