HB128 By Representative Sorrell RFD State Government Rd 1 04-FEB-20

SYNOPSIS: Under existing law, various public notices are required to be published in newspapers.

This bill would require the Secretary of State to create, maintain, host, and operate a website on which public notices may be published with legal effect.

This bill would require that the public notice website be available free of charge at all times and that both current and archived public notices be searchable by keyword, file number, or area, and that public notices of local legislation, both current and archived, be publicly searchable by keyword, by sponsor, by subject matter, and by county.

This bill would allow the Secretary of State to require the person or entity purporting to provide the notice to pay a reasonable fee, not to exceed $50, which reflects the actual cost of publication. There would be no fee charged for any other usage of the public notice website.

This bill would also provide a method by which a county commission may vote to opt that county out of the public notice website, as well as a method by which the governing body of a municipality may vote to opt its area of incorporation out of the public notice website.

This bill would also provide for delivery of public notices to the Secretary of State for publishing on the public notice website.

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT

Relating to public notices; to provide for electronic publication of public notices on a public notice website operated by the Secretary of State; to provide for fees for publication; to allow counties and municipalities to opt out under certain conditions; and to provide for delivery of public notices to the Secretary of State for publication on the public notice website.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA:

Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the Legal Notice Savings and Modernization Act.

Section 2. As used in this act, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

(1) LOCAL LEGISLATION. Any legislation for which notice of intent to apply for is required to be published in a newspaper of general circulation under Section 106 or Section 107 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901.

(2) PUBLIC NOTICE, LEGAL NOTICE, or NOTICE. Any matter that, pursuant to law or rule, is required to be published in a newspaper of general circulation. For purposes of this act, this term includes, but is not limited to: Local legislation, notices of foreclosure by banks, contractor notices, publication of voter rolls, and any notice required under any local law.

(3) PUBLIC NOTICE WEBSITE. An Internet website or the existing Secretary of State's website, upon which public notices, legal notices, and notices may be posted with legal effect and which has the capacity and ability to receive and upload notices from a majority of newspapers in this state.

Section 3. (a) The Secretary of State shall create, maintain, host, and operate a public notice website or may contract with a third party for the creation, maintenance, hosting, and operation of the public notice website.

(b) If the Secretary of State contracts with a third party and the Secretary of State requires a quality review, the third party must provide full access to the technical informational operations of the public notice website.

Section 4. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, and except as provided in subsections (b) and (c), beginning October 1, 2021, whenever public notice is required by law to be published in a newspaper publication, notice may be made in the same form on the Internet through a public notice website meeting the requirements of this act.

(b) If the county commission of any county finds by majority vote that a public notice website would not provide adequate notice to the intended audience within that county, then notice through a public notice website pursuant to this act shall not be sufficient to fulfill public notice requirements within that county, and any public notice within that county shall continue to be made by newspaper as authorized by law until the county commission, by majority vote, finds that a public notice website would provide adequate notice to the intended audience.

(c) If the governing body of any municipality finds by majority vote that a public notice website would not provide adequate notice to the intended audience within that municipality, then notice through a public notice website pursuant to this act shall not be sufficient to fulfill public notice requirements within that municipality, and any public notice within that municipality shall continue to be made by newspaper publication as authorized by law until the governing body of the municipality, by majority vote, finds that a public notice website would provide adequate notice to the intended audience.

(d) A county commission or municipal governing body that determines a public notice website to be insufficient under subsection (b) or (c) shall deliver to the Secretary of State a written notice of those findings within 30 calendar days of that vote. A county commission or municipal governing body that thereafter determines that a public notice would provide adequate notice must deliver to the Secretary of State a written notice of that determination within 30 calendar days of that vote.

(e) The submission for Internet publication of a public notice shall be made through the Secretary of State by the duly authorized person or entity purporting to provide the notice.

(f) The Secretary of State may charge a fee which reasonably reflects the actual cost of publication to the duly authorized person or entity purporting to provide the notice. Neither the state nor any state officer or employee, except the Secretary of State, is responsible for providing personnel for the operation or maintenance of a public notice website.

(g)(1) With regard to the publication of local legislation, on the next business day following proper completion of the required period of publication for any local legislation, the Secretary of State shall certify the completion in writing to the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives, along with an exact copy of the local legislation as published on the public notice website.

(2) Upon receipt of a written certification of proper completion of the required period of advertising publication of the local legislation, the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House shall verify that all statutory and constitutional requirements have been satisfied. Upon introduction of that local legislation in the Senate or House, the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House shall enter proof of publication into the journal.

Section 5. (a) No later than October 1, 2020, the Secretary of State shall develop and test the public notice website and ensure proper functionality pursuant to this act.

(b) In addition to other requirements contained in this act, the Secretary of State shall also do all of the following:

(1) Develop, create, maintain, host, and operate the public notice website.

(2) Maintain the public notice website without interruption 24 hours per day, seven days a week, each day of the year; and the public notice website, including all its features, must be fully publicly accessible at all times.

(3) Ensure that the public notice website has the capability to accept and display any public notice forwarded from a newspaper publishing a required notice, free of charge to that newspaper or the duly authorized person or entity purporting to provide the notice.

(4) Ensure that individual notices are displayed for not less than the length of time requested by the duly authorized person or entity purporting to provide the notice. At the end of the posting time, the Secretary of State, with prior approval of the person or entity that arranged for the posting and for a reasonable fee, may send a reminder to the entity that the notice is due to expire.

(5) Include within the public notice website an archives feature which is accessible free of charge to the public at all times, and also include a function which allows the public to determine which notices have been posted in a given county.

(6) Provide that public notices of local legislation, both current and archived, are publicly searchable on the public notice website by keyword, by sponsor, by subject matter, and by county.

(7) Make a report to the Legislature upon the successful development and testing of the public notice website.

(c) The Secretary of State may not charge a fee to a person accessing, searching, or using the public notice website, except for the fee for posting of a notice as allowed by this act.

Section 6. (a) Prior to September 1, 2020, each county and each municipality shall publish a notice informing the public about the change to Internet publication of public notice, legal notices, and notices within the state.

(1) This notice shall run at least once a week for four consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation qualified to publish public notice in that county or municipality under Section 6-8-60 of the Code of Alabama 1975.

(2) If there is no newspaper of general circulation qualified to publish public notice in the county or municipality, then this requirement may be satisfied by posting the notice for four consecutive weeks at five different public places in the county or municipality.

(b) This section shall not apply to any county or municipality of which the governing body has determined and declared, pursuant to Section 3, that a public notice website pursuant to this act is not sufficient to fulfill public notice requirements within that county or municipality, until that county or municipality finds and declares that a public notice website would provide adequate notice to the intended audience.

Section 7. The Secretary of State may conduct a public information campaign to inform the public of changes relating to the methods of legal notice within the state, at no cost to the state.Section 8. Sections 6-8-64 and 17-4-1, Code of Alabama 1975, are amended to read as follows:

§6-8-64.

"(a) The rate charged for publication of a public notice shall not exceed the lowest classified rate paid by or published on a rate card for commercial customers for an advertisement of similar size, and frequency in the same newspapers in which the public notice appears. The lowest classified rate paid by or published on a rate card for commercial customers for such advertisements shall be calculated to also include all cash discounts, multiple insertion discounts, and any other commercial contract benefits for which the public notice also qualifies.

"(b) The newspaper publishing the notice shall place the notice on its own website, if it publishes a website, and shall forward the notice to the Secretary of State in a form suitable for publication on a statewide website at no additional charge to government or to the party in interest or at whose instance the publication of a legal notice is to be given. The amount charged for the notice shall include publication in the print edition of the newspaper; the newspaper's website, if it publishes one; and the statewide website.

"(c) The rates established in this section shall apply to any and all legal notices, advertisements, publications, statements, or other matter of whatever kind or character required by the Constitution of Alabama, by general, local, or special law or by rules or orders of courts to be published in newspapers in this state, whether the agency required to cause the publication to be made is an individual, officer, municipality, county, the state, governmental subdivision, or any other legal entity; provided, that rates established in this section shall not apply when a local law prescribes a different rate, in which event the local law shall be applicable.

§17-4-1.

"The judge of probate shall publish from the state voter registration list a correct alphabetical list of qualified electors either by county, precinct, district, or subdivision wherein each elector is registered to vote, on a statewide Internet website maintained by the Secretary of State or in some newspaper with general circulation in the county, on or before the twentieth day preceding the regularly scheduled primary election. The list shall be accompanied by a printed certification generated by the state voter registration system verifying that the list contains the names of all qualified electors registered as of the specified time and date when it was printed. The list shall further state that any elector whose name was inadvertently omitted from the list shall have 10 days in which to have his or her name entered upon the list of qualified voters. If within 10 days any voter shall reasonably satisfy the board of registrars by proper proof that any name should be added to the list, the board shall add such name to the list. The supplemental list of registered voters inadvertently omitted from the original list shall be published once on a statewide Internet website or in a newspaper of general circulation in the county on or before the seventh day preceding the date of the primary election. The lists required to be published pursuant to this section may be published, at the discretion of the county commission, as a preprinted or inserted advertising supplement at a cost no greater than the selected newspaper's lowest applicable national insertion rates. If the list is published as a preprinted supplement in the selected newspaper, the supplement size shall conform to the size requirements set by the selected newspaper and shall be printed on standard newsprint paper. The type size shall be no smaller than nine point standard type. The list shall also be delivered to the newspaper for insertion in a manner required for other advertising supplements. The supplement may not contain any other advertising. Any newspaper accepting a preprinted insertion that is not prepared by the newspaper shall not be responsible for the content of such insertion. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a county commission from publishing the list of voters in more than one newspaper within the county at the county commission's discretion. The judge of probate shall forward any list of voters published in a newspaper to the Secretary of State, in a form suitable for publication on an Internet website."

Section 9. The Secretary of State may adopt rules to implement this act.

Section 10. This act shall become effective on October 1, 2020, following its passage and approval by the Governor, or its otherwise becoming law; but shall not apply to notices of intent to apply for local legislation until the passage and ratification of an amendment to Section 106 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as proposed by HB___ of the 2020 Regular Session.

Public Notices

Secretary of State

Popular Names

Internet

Code Amended