At the January 20, 2022 Commission Meeting, Item C4 S was referred to the Neighborhood and Quality of Life Committee at the request of Rafael E. Granado, City Clerk. The referral asks the members of the Committee to determine if it is in the City’s best interest to run website-only legal notices, as allowed by HB 35.

Florida HB 35 passed during the 2021 legislative session and opens options that were not available before to the City regarding legal notices, including the option of placing public notices solely on a qualified newspaper’s websites. The Miami Herald, The Miami Herald Neighbors, and the El Nuevo Herald are qualified newspapers.

CRITERIA FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES TO RUN WEBSITE-ONLY LEGAL NOTICES:

1. Must be voted on by the City Commission at an advertised public hearing. The City Commission must decide by majority vote that such publication is in the “public interest,” and that residents have sufficient access to broadband service or through other means such that “public access is not unreasonably restricted.”

2. Must be run in the legal section of qualified newspaper’s website.

3. Must be uploaded to Free Press Association (FPA) aggregate website.

4. The City must provide a separate notice each week in the print edition that informs readers to find notices on the newspaper’s website and the state-wide website (https://floridapublicnotices.com/)

5. The City site must include links to all newspapers where it publishes legal notices.

TYPE OF NOTICES THE CITY CAN RUN USING ONLY A NEWSPAPER WEBSITE INCLUDE:

1. Notices related to special or legal legislation. *

2. Educational unit notices.

3. Retirement system notices.

4. Notices related to the inclusion of positions in the Senior Management Service Class of the Florida Retirement System.

5. Notices proposing the enactment of county ordinances.

6. Code enforcement notices.

7. Notices proposing the enactment of municipal ordinances. *

8. Special district meeting notices. *

9. Establishment and termination notices for community development districts. *

10. Disclosures of tax impact by value adjustment boards.

11. Advertisements of real or personal property with delinquent taxes.

12. Advertisements of hearing notices, millage rates, and budgets. *

13. Turnpike project notices.

14. Public-private partnership notices.

15. Notices of prime recharge area designations for the Floridan and Biscayne aquifers.

16. Water management district notices.

17. Hazardous waste disposal notices.

18. Forfeiture notices.

Items listed with an asterisk * are the most commonly advertised legal notices by the Office of the City Clerk.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER LEGAL NOTICES REQUIRED BY FLORIDA STATUTES THAT ARE NOT ON THE ABOVE LIST, MUST THEY STILL RUN IN THE PRINT EDITION?

Yes. Requirements for government notices not included in the above list must continue to be printed as currently required (and posted online for free). Thus, election-related notices cannot be run using the newspaper website-only option and must continue to be placed in print.

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

Previously, State law only allowed the publication of legal notices in newspapers that 1) publish at least once per week and 2) are offered for sale. Any legal notice published in a newspaper must also be published on the newspaper's website. Last fiscal year, the City spent $59,463. (Not election-related) on Miami Herald legal notices.

Currently, the City is charged the following by the Miami Herald to advertise/print each legal notice in the Neighbors:

a.     ¼ Page      $290

b.     ½ Page      $460

c.     Full Page   $735

For Digital Only Legal Advertisements for 30 days online, including the Weekly Print Notice for 4 weeks in the Neighbors the cost is:

a.     $1,660 per advertisement (regardless of size).

Using only the newspaper's website to publish legal notices will be substantially more expensive than the printed notice. The Office of the City Clerk already posts all the legal notices it publishes in newspapers on the City's website.  Thus, there would not be any new benefit to residents.