Opinion editor's note: editorial They represent the opinion of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently of the newsroom.
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Imagine for a moment that you are responsible for designing the governance system of a democratic republic. Naturally, one would want the government to operate in the public domain and the people to have ample opportunity to participate in the conduct of public affairs.
How do you get the government to meet its transparency obligations, such as by printing information sheets and pasting them on bulletin boards in city halls?
It might be better than doing nothing. Our elected leaders make public information about government affairs, even if that information is likely to be seen only by those with a job or interest who came to City Hall in the first place. Probably.
But what happens when the government, or a government agency such as a school board, wants to minimize transparency while remaining technically transparent? Post information on a Friday afternoon. , is there any chance that it will be removed on Monday morning? Or maybe the part of City Hall where the bulletin board used to be is closed for renovations. Sure, the minutes from the last meeting are still posted somewhere, but how do you make sure people can find them?
The point of this scenario is to make clear that efforts to ensure government transparency cannot be the sole domain of governments themselves. In a little-noticed but important way, that principle is being put to the test by a bill currently moving through the Minnesota Legislature.
Current state law requires public notices to be published in official newspapers that have jurisdiction over a particular area. A good example is a notice of a school board meeting published in a local newspaper. However, a legislative initiative supported by the Minnesota School Boards Association has changed the law requiring information to be published in a newspaper (or the newspaper's website) to merely require that the information be published on the school board's own website. The law will be changed to make it mandatory.
This proposal ignores several known facts. This means that the school board's website is likely to attract only a fraction of the newspaper's readers. Like most newspapers, school boards do not necessarily archive web content forever. Also, websites run by local governments may or may not be user-friendly. Similar to the City Hall bulletin board in this scenario, repair work could take the government's website offline for a while. When a newspaper's website malfunctions, our staff does everything in its power to get it back on its feet. The time is money.
Also, from a transparency perspective, and speaking of money, it is important to note that the publication of official notices generates some income for the Star Tribune. Such revenues are generally modest, with one school district testifying in a Senate hearing several years ago that it spent $6,000 on public charges out of a total budget of more than $230 million.
More important than revenue, publishing notices in newspapers outside the government's control gives the public a way to hold the government accountable. These notices are part of the public record and will be preserved no matter what.
Of the two bills awaiting debate in a Legislative Council committee, one is less controversial. The House version makes exceptions to publication requirements in districts affected by recent newspaper closures. However, the Senate bill does not distinguish between districts with newspapers and districts without newspapers. This would allow all school districts to begin posting notices in their own publications and websites. Such sweeping changes could soon spread to other parts of government.
The Minnesota Newspaper Association operates a website, MNpublicnotice.com, that serves as a backup site for posting notices in newspapers. If small newspapers continue to disappear, that site, or sites like it, may have to play an increasingly important role. Whatever the final answer, Minnesotans will need a way to view public information that is beyond the government's control.