Lawmakers consider changes to NJ legal ads
By: Katei Sobko
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... The way in which public notices are published in New Jersey - those fin-print newspaper ads that make the public aware of municipal and county meetings, planing board applications, sheriff's sales and many other official government actions - could change in 2025.
..... A push to change the way public notices are published in the Garden State comes on the heels of news that The Star-Ledger, Jersey Journal, The Times of Trenton and the South Jersey Times will cease to produce a print editions in February. [2025]
..... A bill introduced Thursday [12/12/2024] by state Senator Paul Sarlo, Bergen County Democrat, and President Nick Scutari would keep things status quo for a period of three months and allow for those local governments that use those publications to transition their notices to Online editions.
..... "A newspaper utilized by the public body ... shall be deemed eligible for the same purposes from January 1, 2025, to March 1, 2025, regardless of physical or digital format for the newspaper;s publications," the bill says. It is scheduled to be considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday morning. [12/16/2024]
..... Sarlo alluded to a potential changes last month [11/2024] at the League of Municipalities' annual meeting in Atlantic City but walked back his statements Monday [12/09/2024] at a state senate Budget Committee meeting in Trenton, where he said he and his colleagues are not in a rush to make changes to the ways public notices are published.
..... Legislation to alter the ways public notices - paid for by municipalities to be published in print newspapers - would amend the state's Open Public Meetings Act. Sarlo, who chairs the budget committee, is also the longtime mayor of Wood-Ridge borough.
..... "I firmly believe as chairman and as a longtime mayor what we really should do here is do a three month pause," Sarlo said Monday. [12/09/2024] "Allow municipalities to reorganize, planning boards to reorganize ... Nothing changes, hold everybody harmless, municipality and counties until we can get this right because i think we need to get this right and do a deeper dive and not rush something here."
..... Sarlo also said that "periodicals are a moving target."
..... "Who's publishing? Who's not publishing?" Sarlo said earlier this week [12/09/2024] adding that he thinks the best course of action on paid lea gel notices would be to wait for "transparency one and taxpayers two."
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This planed overhaul of the Open Public Meetings Act comes at a time when lawmakers have already taken steps to limit government transparency and accountability measures.
..... Sarlo, and Assemblyman Joe Danielson in the lower chamber, sponsored legislation earlier this year [2024] to overhaul the Open Pubic Records Act limiting access to government records. Meanwhile, last year [2023] Scutari, and Assemblyman Lou Greenwald in the lower chamber, sponsored legislation known as the Election Transparency Act, which weakens campaign fiance law.
..... Governor Phil Murphy signed both of those bills into law.
..... A bill that would require the state Department of Community Affairs to build and maintain legal notices was introduced in the assembly in May [2024] by Assemblyman Alex Sauikie.
..... "Whenever a local government unit is required buy law to publish a legal notice in one or more newspapers, the local government unit may satisfy the requirements by delivering the legal notice, a coy thereof, or a link thereto, to the Department of Community Affairs for inclusion, without charge or fee, in the centralized, statewide database of local government unit legal notices," the bill states.
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A companions bill, sponsored by state Senator Kristin Corrado, R-Passaic, was introduced in the upper chamber last week. [12/09/2024] those bills have not been scheduled to appear before committee.
What have officials said?
..... During a panel about 2025 legislative priories requirements at the League of Municipality Conference in November, [2024] Sarlo and New Jersey government should have alternatives to publishing public notices in printed newspapers. Sarlo pointed to options like municipal websites and said "we do have a lot of Online media publications" before clarifying that he did not mean "blog platforms or political platforms" but rather "legitimate media platforms."
..... Sarlo said the cost "should be' different for Online noticing as opposed to print and that "it could be a lot economical to the towns for it to be Online."
..... He also said, at that time, the change could be done sooner rather than later as towns prepare for reorganization meetings in early January. [2025]
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His colleagues across the aisle, Minority Leader state Sean tor Anthony Bucco, R-Morris, called the Open Public Meetings Act "outdated: and "archaic" but that an effort should be made to :continue to have transparency and protect the transparency."
..... It's not just the upper chamber that was on board with changing the way towns inform the public about meetings. Greenwald, D-Camden, and Assemblyman John DiMaio, R-Warren, speaking at the League of Municipalities meetings last month, [11/2024] both said they agreed with Sarlo and Bucco.
..... Greenwald said 15 years ago there had been concern about people navigating the Internet but that isn't the case anymore. He did acknowledge "safeguards have to be put into place."
..... "There needs to be a check and balance, I think, to make sure that notices that might put in place that supervise this and oversight so that there's a timely notice wherever that may be, so that games aren't played for politics," Greenwald said.
..... Katei Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com.