Keeping the public informed

Scott Loftis

Last week in this space, we republished an editorial from the Saline Courier regarding a bill currently under consideration in the state House of Representatives that would change the way the public is notified about what city and county governments are doing.

The bill would remove the requirement that cities and counties publish public notices in newspapers like this one and instead give them the option of posting those notices to a centralized website.

Some opponents of the bill have compared it to allowing “the fox in the henhouse.” There is some merit to that analogy but if I were an upstanding elected official doing my best to keep the public informed, I would likely feel insulted. And let me state for the record that our local city and county governments — with the notable and oft-documented exception of the city of Eureka Springs — seem to me to make transparency a priority. But not all parts of the state have the kind of public officials we have here.

If this bill becomes law, it will save city and county governments a little bit of money. Carroll County clerk Connie Doss said last week that the county spends around $9,500 a year to publish public notices in this newspaper. That comes out to about $1 for every three Carroll County residents to keep them informed of what their county government is doing. It will also cost newspapers some money, but I’m not asking for any sympathy on that count. It’s our responsibility to bring in revenue, even if it means we have to do that in new and different ways.

My concern is for the citizens of Carroll County. A large percentage of Carroll County residents don’t have reliable internet connectivity and thus won’t be able to keep up with public notices on a website. Then there are our older readers who prefer the feeling of holding an actual newspaper in their hands. Those folks have become accustomed to reading the paper to see what’s going on with their government, and I don’t see many of them logging on to some website, either.

I was in Little Rock last week, prepared to testify before a legislative committee about this bad bill. I was only one of many, however, and the committee didn’t have time to hear from everyone. So I’ll be back again this week. And the week after that and the week after that, if need be.

When I do get to testify, I’ll share the story that our office manager Melody Strodtman told me about her late father, Thomas Garrett.

Mr. Garrett was a devoted newspaper reader, but he always read two things first, Melody told me.

“He said you had to check the obits and the public notices,” Melody said. “You checked the obits first to see if you died and then you checked the public notices to see who was suing you.”

Times are changing, of course, and someday a website might be the best place to post public notices. But that day isn’t here yet. Public notices belong in newspapers.

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Scott Loftis is editor and publisher of the Carroll County News.