The Indiana Publisher

October 2018 IP

Hoosier State Press Association - The Indiana Publisher

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timely manner, collect proof of publication from the newspaper and pay the newspaper for the publication," Key said. Key and HSPA President Chuck Wells, who also is group publisher for AIM Indiana headquartered in Columbus, testified in favor of continued publication of public notices during the Committee's hearing in August. Zachary Baiel, president of the Indiana Coalition for Open Government, and Patsy Hoyer, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Indiana, also testified in favor of newspaper publication of government public notices. Rhonda Cook of Accelerate Indiana Municipalities testified before the committee in favor of eliminating the publication of the financial reports during the Committee's September hearing. Not all, but the majority of the state legislators on the interim committee spoke in favor of the newspaper publication of notices as better than posting on govern- ment websites. Key said the report will be useful during the 2019 Indiana General Assembly as a tool to fight legislation filed to eliminate publication of public notices. "The committee listened to testimony on the issue and clearly felt publication of notices remains the best way to inform Hoosiers of actions taken and contemplated by government officials," Key said. Cook called the published part of the annual report "not relevant," but AIM's solution was elimina- tion, not improvement of the public notice. She noted that the entire annual financial report was on the state's Gateway portal. This is the same portal that HSPA testified last month only saw 7,000 unique visitors to the posted proposed budgets of local government units throughout 2017, compared to the 2.9 million Hoosiers who read at least one newspaper a week. Rep. Bruce Borders, R-Jason- ville, noted the lack of unique visitors to the Gateway Portal and said print remains the best option for keeping government units accountable to the taxpayer, whom Borders called "the underserved individual" when it comes to lobbying efforts. Committee reaction to AIM testimony generally fell within two areas – opposition to the elimination of published public notices and calls to change the required financial report informa- tion to data more helpful to the public in the published public notice. "You're cutting the people off from information they want to learn," said Sen. Sue Glick, R-LaGrange. Sen. Victoria Spartz, R-Nobles- ville, said the public should be able to see how the money is spent and suggested the legislature should look at a better way to present relevant government spending information. Spartz asked Cook about how to make the financial report better. Cook suggested pie charts as a possible solution to make information more understandable to the public. Rep. Terri Austin, D-Anderson, said elimination the publication of the annual report would only serve to increase the public's general disenchantment and distrust with government institutions. She also suggested an effort to improve what's required of cities and towns in the publication. Rep. Robin Shackleford, D-Indianapolis, said the cost for cities and towns to publish the annual financial notice "is a low price for transparency." When Rep. Mahan and Rep. Bob Cherry, R-Greenfield, referred to public notice advertis- ing as an "unfunded mandate" on local government by the legisla- ture, they received a quick reply from Sen. Glick. "It's the cost of doing business, not an unfunded mandate. It's the cost of democracy," she said. Many of the committee members agreed with the assess- ment of Rep. Dennis Zent, R-Angola, who after pointing out the lack of reliable Internet service in his district said there may be a time to move from print, but "we're not there yet." Reports Continued from Page 1 October 2018 Page 9 notices: • No phone number available to get problems resolved (only an email address); • Length of deadline prior to publication date to get a notice published (She said one newspaper requires a notice be submitted 14 days prior to the publication date); • Credit holds placed on Air Quality permit publication, even when the late payment was associated with a wastewater program notice from IDEM; • Missed publication dates; and • Failure to publish at all. "IDEM staff wants to eliminate publication because newspapers can be work, while hitting a button so the notice is posted is a relative piece of cake," Key said. But sporadic service issues, which HSPA could address for IDEM, is not a reason to deprive the public of its most effective means of learning about applica- tions that could affect their health, Key argues. Since the hearing, Key met with Matt Stuckey, deputy assistant commissioner, Office of Air Quality. HSPA has offered to help Stuckey's department with the placement of public notices in the same fashion it already assists the state Alcohol & Tobacco Commission. While Stuckey acknowledged HSPA's service probably would save the Air Quality office a significant number of man-hours, the department will continue to push for the Board passage of the rule change allowing his depart- ment to merely post notices of hearing on the IDEM website, which was only visited by 2,000 unique visitors over the last 12 months. That compares with the 2.9 million adult Hoosiers who read a newspaper at least once a week. "IDEM and board comments echo what I've heard from opponents of newspaper publica- tion for 25 years," Key said. One board member suggested that rather than placing ads, IDEM could send out the information to newspaper editors who could decide on whether to publish the information as news. That's not "public notice," it's media notice, according to Key. During the hearing, Stuckey pointed out that notice on the IDEM website is there for weeks, while newspaper notice is pub- lished on a single day. "It doesn't matter how many days its posted on a website, if no one sees it," Key said. "People do see notices published in their local newspaper." Only one Board member, Ken Rulon of Arcadia, voted "no" on a motion to bring the rule to a vote in November. He represents the interests of agriculture on the Board. "It's disappointing that the Board didn't see fit to kill this proposal that does nothing to improve government transparency – only hide information in plain sight because Hoosiers do not and will not seek out the IDEM website to learn if a local business seeks permission to pollute the air," Key said. "We do have time to further make our case with the Environ- mental Board members." IDEM Continued from Page 1 "It's disappointing that the Board didn't see fit to kill this proposal that does nothing to improve government transparency ..." Steve Key, HSPA executive director, general counsel

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