By: Bryce Steiner
This is a letter addressed to the Ohio House Ways and Means Committee. Currently, there is a bill proposed that would remove the necessity of legal notices concerning citizens to not be in newspapers.
May 10, 2021
Dear House Ways and Means Committee,
I understand that House Bill 255 would limit the requirements that governments have to make known notices in the newspaper. I believe this would be a poorly thought out decision and would truly limit the peoples information of their government and create an environment of lack of transparency.
Right now the newspaper is the only thing that disperses legal information between the government and the people in a manner unmatched by any other medium.
I question why this is being brought up considering the people are not asking for less information to be presented to them in these turbulent times. In particular I read the testimony of Matt Nolan, Warren County Auditor. For a county the size of Hamilton to save only $33,000 per year because of this is negligible to keeping the citizens informed. Then to mention Cuyahoga County saving only $60,000 in a county of 1.2 million people is a cost of less than $.05 per person, per year. The county probably spends more on having their rugs cleaned in their county offices. This does not even include creating new departments in each county, and a new state agency to ensure oversight that notices are out there to the public, and if not successful will bring about many new lawsuits.
What concerns me more is the people – the people you represent, and who pay taxes. Property owners may be sent notices by USPS, but many times they are not receiving them. My neighbor, Ms Kandise, had her property nearly foreclosed upon due to delinquent taxes, and the only reason she was able to find out was because of the notice in the newspaper, as she told me. The day before the Sheriff Sale she was able to get to the Auditor’s Office and pay her taxes.
The counties may not be requiring certified mail to ensure the notice is delivered to the correct person, and the post office right now is not known for their reliability. This supports the position of the newspaper in the community. The notices are not there to embarrass anyone, as stated by Nolan, but as a last ditch effort to inform them in a public setting of losing something valuable to them. Many times the government does not have the ability to reach vast numbers of local readers on their own means.
How many different websites would a person be required to visit regularly to check on notices? Imagine the burden you would be placing on each township, county, village, city, health department, hospital, school, etc., many of whom don’t have websites, or don’t have the staff to keep them updated. This is already taken care of in the private sector much better, with minimal costs to the taxpayer.
Lastly, I ask, do government officials really want to turn more power over to Silicon Valley? Facebook and other social media are not known for keeping people on their platforms that they politically disagree with in their community standards policies. Not to mention, there are many people who do not want the internet or the tech giants telling them what they must do, or not do.
If a county needs to cut spending, there are many other places to look at in the budget. Please, for the sake of the citizens of Ohio, keep notifications in the public platform of the newspapers, without having unnecessary burdens placed upon my fellow citizens.
Thank you,
Bryce Steiner, Citizen of Ohio, and
Publisher, West Bend News, Antwerp, Ohio
