Under the Golden Dome

   The eighth week of the legislative session included our first major deadline of the year. This deadline led to a whirlwind of subcommittee and committee meetings as we work to move bills through the legislative process. Hundreds of bills are filed each year, and this deadline helps us narrow them down to the ones with the support to continue on to the Senate floor for debate and to the other chamber for discussion. This week added extended days, intense meetings, and hectic schedule adjustments, but we all survived and left the Capitol with that major deadline behind us.

Improving Efficiency with Technology

   This year the Senate formed a new committee, the Senate Technology Committee, to focus on information technology, telecommunications, cybersecurity, and how government can use technology to increase efficiency. One solution moved forward this week. Senate Study Bill 1190 would direct the state to establish and maintain an online portal where statutorily required public notices would be posted and publicized.

   Currently, public notices are required to be printed in newspapers, like openings for teachers, public notices for public constructions projects, and board openings. Public notices are important. They protect taxpayers by ensuring accountability and competitiveness in public projects and they keep the people informed about the activities of their local government. Schools, counties, and cities each spend thousands of dollars each year for these notices. Cities and schools may spend $50 to $200 per notice. Some municipal waterworks estimate they spend roughly $3,100 per year. We have even heard an estimate from the AEAs that some of their publications can run as high as $11,000. It should not be breaking the bank or budgets for our communities to publish their required notices. I have heard repeatedly from many of my smaller rural communities about the expense of this requirement and the stress it puts on their already stretched budgets.

   Let's get down to the real issue. The goal with this bill is to modernize this system and make it more accessible, more transparent, and more efficient. The online portal for postings would be searchable, allow people to sign up to receive notifications for notices, and cost the public entity only $5 for each public notice. It provides an easily accessible, central location for public notices and makes it simple for Iowans to keep up with notices important to them. This bill is a great way to use technology to make government more efficient, more accessible, and save millions of dollars in costs for local governments.

     EDITOR’S NOTE: Currently, the Iowa Newspaper Association (INA) maintains an online public notice website (www.iowanotices.org) that all Iowa newspapers use to upload their legal notices at no charge to the government or taxpayer.

   Public notices should be monitored by an independent third party, such as newspapers. The government should not be in charge of holding the government accountable. (M.A.S)