On May 12, 2021, the Commission referred the following Item to the Neighborhood and Quality of Life Committee at the request of Vice-mayor Michael Góngora.

R9 Y    DISCUSSION REGARDING HOW HOUSE BILL 35 (LEGAL NOTICES) WILL AFFECT THE CITY OF MIAMI BEACH.

The Item was referred to the Neighborhood and Quality of Life Committee by the sponsor without discussion.

SUMMARY OF BILL

The Florida Constitution requires that public notice be given for meetings at which official acts are to be taken or where public business is to be conducted. Several statutory provisions require that public notices and advertisements also be given for certain other local government and judicial actions. Such notices and advertisements (“legal notices”) must be published in a newspaper meeting specified requirements, including that the newspaper be for sale to the public, unless no newspaper is published in the county, in which case three copies of such notice must be posted in the county and published in a newspaper in the nearest available county. If the newspaper maintains a website, legal notices must appear in a searchable format on such website the same day they appear in the printed publication at no additional charge. The newspaper must also place a copy of the notice on the Florida Press Association’s repository website and allow the public to sign up to receive e-mailed notifications of notice publications.

The bill:

• Modifies the criteria that a newspaper must satisfy to publish legal notices.

   

• Gives governmental agencies the option to publish legal notices on the website of a qualified newspaper and on the Florida Press Association’s repository website under specified conditions.

• Authorizes a newspaper publishing legal notices online to charge for such publication up to the amount it would charge to publish the notices in its print edition.

• Requires the Florida Press Association to seek to ensure that minority populations throughout the state have equitable access to legal notices posted on the Florida Press Association’s repository website and requires the Florida Press Association to publish a report containing specified information.

The bill was approved by the Governor on May 7, 2021 and will become effective on January 1, 2022.

IMPACT OF THE BILL

The bill modifies the criteria a newspaper must meet in order to be qualified for legal notice publication. Specifically, the bill requires that legal notices published in the print edition of a newspaper must:

• Be printed and published periodically at least once a week.

   

• Contain at least 25 percent of its words in the English language.

   

• Satisfy one of the following criteria:

   

  • Is sold, or otherwise available to the public, at no less than ten publicly accessible outlets and has an audience consisting of at least 10 percent of the households in the county or municipality, as determined by the most recent decennial census, where the legal notice is being published or posted, by calculating the:

     

    • Combination of the total number of print copies reflecting the day of highest print circulation, of which at least 25 percent of such print copies must be delivered to home and business addresses; and

       

    • Total number of online unique monthly visitors to the newspaper’s website from within the state.

       

• Holds a periodicals permit as of March 1, 2021, and accepts legal notices for publication as of that date; however, any such newspaper may only publish legal notices through December 31, 2023, so long as the newspaper continues to meet the requirements in section 21 of chapter 99-2, Laws of Florida, and continues to hold a periodicals permit.

   

• For newspapers publishing legal notices in a fiscally constrained county, holds a periodicals permit and meets all other requirements of the legal notices chapter.

• Be available to the public generally for the publication of legal notices with no more than 75 percent of its content dedicated toward advertising, as measured in half of the newspaper’s issues that are published during any 12-month period, and customarily containing information of a public character or of interest or of value to the residents or owners of property in the county where published, or of interest or of value to the general public.

   

• Continually publish in a prominent manner within the first five pages of the print addition and at the bottom portion of the homepage of the newspaper’s website:

• The name, street address, phone number, and website URL of the newspaper’s approved print auditor;

   

• The newspaper’s most recent statement of ownership; and

• A statement of the auditor certifying the veracity of the newspaper’s print distribution and the number of the newspaper’s website’s monthly unique visitors, or the newspaper’s periodicals permit, if applicable. 

   

  The bill also authorizes a governmental agency^[1] to publish legal notices on the website of any newspaper in the county to which the legal notice pertains^[2] and on the Florida Press Association’s repository website in lieu of publishing the notice in the print edition of a newspaper if the governmental agency, after a public hearing noticed in a print edition of a newspaper of general circulation in the affected governmental agency’s jurisdiction,^[3] determines that:

   

• Internet publication of legal notices is in the public interest; and

   

• The residents within the jurisdiction of the governmental agency have sufficient internet access such that internet-only publication of legal notices would not unreasonably restrict public access.

Under the bill:

• The legal notices section of the print edition of a newspaper must include a disclaimer stating that additional legal notices may be accessed on the newspaper’s website and the Florida Press Association’s repository website.

   

• The legal notices section of the newspaper’s website must also include a disclaimer stating that legal notices are also published in the print edition of the newspaper and on the Florida Press Association’s repository website.

• A newspaper may charge for internet-only legal notice publication up to the amount authorized for publication of legal notices in a newspaper’s print edition, without rebate, commission, or refund.

• A governmental agency publishing legal notices only online must:

• Give notice at least once a week in the print edition of a newspaper of general circulation within the region in which the governmental agency is located^[4] which states that:

   

  • Legal notices pertaining to the agency do not all appear in the print edition of the local newspaper;

     

  • Additional legal notices may be accessed on the newspaper’s website; and

• A full listing of any legal notices may be accessed on the Florida Press Association’s repository website.

• Post a link on its website homepage to a webpage that lists all the newspapers in which it publishes legal notices.

   

• All requirements regarding format and accessibility for legal notices published in the print edition of a newspaper also apply to legal notices published only online.

Further, the bill requires the Florida Press Association to seek to ensure that minority populations throughout the state have equitable access to legal notices posted on the Florida Press Association’s repository website and requires the Florida Press Association to publish a report:

• Listing all newspapers that have placed notices on the repository website in the preceding calendar quarter.

   

• Identifying which criteria that each newspaper satisfied to become qualified to publish legal notices.

   

• Including the number of unique visitors to the repository website during the quarter and the number of legal notices that were published during that quarter by Internet-only publication or by publication in a print newspaper and on the repository website.  

The bill provides an effective date of January 1, 2022.

A copy of the bill may be found at:

https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Documents/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=_h0035er.docx&DocumentType=Bill&BillNumber=0035&Session=2021

[1] Under the bill, “governmental agency” means a county, a municipality, a district school board, or any other unit of local government or political subdivision in this state. 

[2] Under the bill, a newspaper is deemed to be a newspaper in the county to which the legal notice pertains if it satisfies the criteria for a newspaper to publish legal notices in print.

[3] Under the bill, a newspaper is deemed to be a newspaper of general circulation within the jurisdiction of the affected governmental agency if it satisfies the criteria for a newspaper to publish legal notices in print. 

[4] Under the bill, a newspaper is deemed to be a newspaper of general circulation within the region in which the governmental agency is located if it satisfies the criteria for a newspaper to publish legal notices in print.