SPRING 2006 NEWSLETTER
GEORGIA FOI ACCESS
GEORGIA FIRST AMENDMENT FOUNDATION

The ball is in the Georgia Senate’s court
to require posting of bids on state registry

By Tom Bennett

Lilburn, Ga., March 15, 2006 – The 19th and 20th century method of freedom of information, in which governments paid newspapers to publish legal notices, and the 21st century method, in which the agencies begin to post them free on web sites, are on a collision course.

The Georgia House of Representatives has voted 166-0 for the latter. Now nervous publishers watch to see if the Senate, too, will decide that a key record type goes out via the state’s Georgia Procurement Registry as well as running in the official legal organs. The record type is the "advertisement of certain bid opportunities."

Georgia’s cities, counties, school boards and authorities, 1000 or more of them, may welcome the savings of a free listing statewide. They could gradually forgo the century-old system of paying their legal organs to publish the same information. Ultimately, this departure of bids could begin an exodus of more of the 161 types of public notices that the General Assembly and governors have written into state law since the Civil War.

This exodus of dollars could spell economic disaster for publishers, their families and their employees. If it is true that there are papers in county seats that exist in order to get the lucrative legal-notices income, then their numbers may dwindle in the coming years.

"There is no effective substitute to local legal organ newspaper advertisements for giving prompt and effective information to local citizens," wrote David Hudson, attorney for the Georgia Press Association, in his analysis of the 2006 bills.

"Citizens know where to look for legal ads in their local newspaper, and can access the newspaper without the expense of owning a computer or paying a monthly Internet access fee."

Mike Buffington is the publisher of newspapers in four northeast Georgia cities, and the immediate past president of the Newspaper Association of America.

"A web posting, unlike a printed newspaper, is just a digital file and can be changed or altered without the public even knowing it," Buffington wrote in an op-ed article.

"Former President Ronald Reagan, the iconic standard bearer of Georgia’s new Republican leadership, coined the phrase ‘Trust, but verify.’ Yet what some of the state’s leaders want to do is take away the ‘verify’ part in community newspapers and for citizens to just ‘trust’ their local governments."

House Bill 833 passed the House by its resounding margin on Feb. 22. It is sponsored by Reps. John Lunsford of McDonough, David Knight of Griffin, John Yates of Griffin, Willie Talton of Warner Robins, Barry Loudermilk of Cartersville and Mary Margaret Oliver of DeKalb County.

The bill’s third version is – where else? – online at this writing and it states:

"To amend Title 36 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to local government, so as to provide that the Georgia Procurement Registry shall be used in addition to the official legal organ for advertisement of certain bid opportunities for goods and services and public works construction contracts by a municipal corporation, county, or local board of education; to require advertisement of certain bid opportunities by local government entities via the Georgia Procurement Registry; to provide that advertisement via the Georgia Procurement Registry shall be at no cost to local government entities…"

The state Department of Administrative Services operates the Georgia Procurement Registry. It states on its site – we’re online again – that it has begun "a four-year project to improve state-wide procurement systems. The State Purchasing Division is leading this effort that uses strategic sourcing techniques to leverage the high volume of statewide purchases into the best value for the taxpayer dollars and will save $143 millions of dollars by 2009."

On its web site today, the FULTON COUNTY DAILY REPORT in Atlanta has an index to 47 types under the heading "Public Notices."

In North Georgia this week, the PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS in Jasper has on its web site 54 notices of sheriff’s tax sales, plus 20 other types of public notices.

In South Georgia this week, the TRIBUNE & GEORGIAN of St. Mary’s has on its web site six notices of intent to incorporate, six notices of sale under power, and six other public notice types.

There is a second group that would be hit hard by House Bill 833. The powerful county seat law firms serve as attorneys for the counties, cities, school boards, development authorities and water and sewer authorities – often for more than one at a time. These law firms interpret, explain and write the complex public notices that are the framework for day-to-day state and local government.

The notices administer estates; auction unclaimed property; find lost heirs; form, merge and dissolve corporations; commence divorces; license liquor stores and announce the election qualifying fees. They even serve notice that people have been given permission to hunt deer at night.

A typical minimum fee to run a public notice is $10, and a Georgia law firm may charge as much as $315 an hour. So a lot of money is at stake in a bill that could begin to overhaul a time-honored system in which newspapers did more than cover, they were to some extent part of, the government.

Tom Bennett of Lilburn is a GFAF volunteer and retired news employee of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.