Dear State Representatives Allor, Anthony, Brixie, Calley, Camilleri, Carter, Cherry, Clemente, Frederick, Garrett, Garza, Gay-Dagnogo, Greig, Guerra, Haadsma, Hall, Hertel, Hoadley, Hood, Hope, Howell, Inman, Johnson, Kahle, Kennedy, Koleszar, Kuppa, Lasinski, Love, Lower, Manoogian, Markkanen, Miller, Pagan, Peterson, Pohutsky, Rabhi, Rendon, Sabo, Shannon, Slagh, Sneller, Sowerby, Stone, Tate, Vansingel, Vaupel, Warren, Wittenberg, Witwer, and Yancy:
Thank you for your strong support of community newspapers with your recent vote against HB6440. As we’ve met with legislators on this important issue, we’ve heard your concerns and have drafted legislation that addresses those concerns while maintaining all the principles of good public notice and transparency at no additional cost to government units. We have also been looking to discuss what specific government notice requirements need to be revised or eliminated. Regardless of what the supporters of HB6440 claim, there will be considerable costs of both money and staff time in tasking local clerks with the responsibility of posting this information on their websites.
The key points of our draft legislation, which will be introduced early in the next session, are:
• All notices must be posted to the local newspaper’s website, available free to the public.
• All notices must be posted to a statewide website. This website will offer the public the ability to select what sort of information they would like to receive, and they will automatically be notified via text and/or email of this information at no charge.
• The notices will be posted online and permanently maintained there.
• This will be done independently from the party placing the notice thereby maintaining the third-party oversight function.
• The statewide website also provides a mobile app for both iOS and Android platforms.
• Newspapers must maintain a permanent copy of their newspapers available for the public to review locally at no cost.
• This will help maintain critical small business jobs as opposed to eliminating them.
• It doesn’t disenfranchise citizens who do not have access to the internet because of geographical, financial, or physical constraints.
We will be reaching out to you soon to ask for your support for this dynamic and more comprehensive, thoughtful solution to providing notice of these important notices to the public.
Thank you once again for your critical vote on December 2nd.
Stay healthy,
Bradley L. Thompson II
CEO, Detroit Legal News Co.
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