EDITORIAL
By its very name, a Public Notice, also called a Legal Notice, is printed in newspapers to give notice to the public about what a governmental entity, whether county, school district, or city, is spending.
For many years public notices have been placed in this newspaper along with hundreds of other newspapers across Texas. Why newspapers? Because they provide the most effective medium that guarantees permanent, independent access by the public to bids the city, county or school district are letting. Newspapers are reliable, with their weekly or daily publications, and are always available to the general public through rack sales, counter sales or subscriptions.
Basically, if you want to know what your government is spending, there is a single source to search.
For example, we have a notice today from the city of Kyle requesting bids for a nonpoint source water quality program retrofit on a facility. In the last couple of months, we printed bids from Hays CISD for vendor supplies and for asphalt services, from the city of Hays for street improvements, and from other governmental entities within our readership area.
But there is a move in the legislature, House Bill 507, by State Rep. Angie Chen Button (R-Richardson), which would allow cities, counties and school districts to publish their own competitive bids by putting notices on their own websites. Button says the bill would save money by not having to go to an outside source for notification.
The very nature of public/legal notices is to get input from voters and vendors, from contractors and concerned citizens. There are numerous problems when such notices are put ONLY on a governmental website.
When and for how long is the bid online, and what outside source will review these bids? Who guarantees that the notices actually were posted?
How will voters be able to look at all of the websites in a reasonable manner to keep an eye on the bidding process?
Just in our immediate area, taxpayers and anyone wanting to bid would have to view websites from Hays CISD, Hays County and the cities of Kyle, Buda, Uhland, Niederwald, Mountain City, Hays City, and more. That doesn’t count numerous other entities – fire districts, community college districts, emergency service districts, water districts and more – that taxpayers would have to review daily just to keep up with their tax dollars.
Public Notices in the newspaper might cost a small amount, but in the long run, getting more bids will drive down costs from vendors and will keep voters informed.
In addition, newspapers already post legal notices on their own websites and the Hays Free Press also participates with the Texas Press Association by placing local websites on a statewide website, texaslegalnotices.com. This searchable database for public notices brings the eyes of bidders from throughout the state – if not the world – to Hays County.
Is the state willing to put together such a program that brings together all the legal notices from all the governmental entities throughout Texas? Who will bear that cost?
Is the state willing to spend thousands of dollars on a secure website, allowing for searches, posting, auditing? Who will maintain this?
Who will monitor local government sites to be sure that bids are not hidden, thus allowing only a “friend” of someone to even know that a bid has been let.
We know ourselves that some folks in local government don’t want their notices “noticed.” They ask that we bury the notice, that we not put it online, that we not send it to the state.
To what end? Why? Because they don’t want any more bidders. They are satisfied with a friend of a friend providing the requested services.
Then we are poorer for such requests.
Taxpayers will end up being poorer without having knowledge of what their government is up to. They will be poorer if a friend of a friend gets the bid without real competition. We will all be poorer if public notices only go on websites without outside oversight.
Legal notices should be left in newspapers, in print and online, because we offer a third-party system that is viewable, searchable, and permanent.
Don’t give up your right to know what is going on. Call State Rep. Jason Isaac (463-0647, [email protected]) and tell him to vote no on Button’s bill.
