BILL: LET COUNTIES POST MINUTES ONLINE RATHER THAN IN PAPERS
By NORA AVERY-PAGE
Cronkite News Service
PHOENIX (Monday, April 7) _ The Internet makes it easy to find just about anything, and, because of that, a state lawmaker says there’s no longer a reason Arizona counties should have to pay newspapers for legal advertisements carrying their meeting minutes.
Rep. John Nelson, R-Glendale, is sponsoring a bill that would allow counties to choose between paying for newspaper space or posting meeting minutes on their Web sites.
The bill, which Nelson wrote over HB 2193 as a strike-everything amendment, has passed the House and won a unanimous endorsement Monday from the Senate Government Committee.
“It really keeps up with technology,” Nelson said. “Everybody’s talking right now about openness of government, and people who are interested can keep up with what’s going on.”
Elizabeth Hegedus-Berthold, legislative liaision for the County Supervisors Association of Arizona, said counties pay more than $300,000 a year to comply with a state law requiring them to run meeting minutes in a general-circulation newspaper.
“We don’t think it’s the role of the counties to subsidize the local newspapers,” Hegedus-Berthold said.
Cities and towns already may post their meeting minutes online and don’t have to pay newspapers to get the information out.
Eric Emmert, the legislative liaison representing Yuma County, said the bill creates a level playing field between the counties and cities.
“Yuma County would like the option to post their minutes online, similar to the municipalities,” Emmert said.
Tim McGuire, a professor and the Frank Russell Chair for the Business of Journalism in Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said that he’s not surprised by the legislation.
“This is a battle that has long been lost for newspapers,” McGuire said. “This is a practice that has outlived its usefulness. I just can’t believe that these minutes are all that stand between a newspaper closing its doors or not. If it is, this is not the problem, and newspapers are much worse off then we thought.”
While newspapers would lose revenue because of the proposed change, the Arizona Newspapers Association hasn’t publicly spoken out against the bill.
“The intent of this bill was to put the counties more on par with the cities and towns,” said John Moody, an ANA spokesman.
When asked if he thought that the bill could have a negative effect on newspapers, Moody said, “It may, but we have been working with the counties and the sponsor to make this a better piece of legislation.”