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Attorney warns lawmakers that public‑notice bill lacks standards, urges rulemaking
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Summary
At a House committee hearing, attorney Peter Fritz supported modernizing public‑notice law (SB2929) but said the bill gives agencies electronic posting authority without standards, funding or ADA readiness; he urged rulemaking or a working group before full roll‑out.
Supporters of SB2929, a bill to allow government agencies to satisfy public‑notice obligations by posting on official websites, argued the change would modernize an outdated system. But at least one experienced attorney pressed for guardrails to prevent an uneven or inaccessible transition.
Peter Fritz told the committee the bill "authorizes electronic notice without telling anyone how to do it correctly, what standards apply, who is responsible, or what happens when something goes wrong." He said the statewide calendar and relevant systems are not ready, ADA accessibility requirements are imminent, and there is no funding to bring agencies up to the needed standard. "This bill is like handing the keys to a car to someone who has never driven," Fritz said, and recommended either rulemaking through Enterprise Technology Services or forming a working group to develop standards before implementation.
The committee’s chair said many of Fritz’s suggestions would be accepted as technical amendments; a subset of his recommended details would be left to rulemaking rather than written explicitly into the bill text. Members discussed optional versus mandatory electronic posting and concerns that optional use could quickly become the default, raising legal and accessibility issues.
Why it matters: Modernizing public notice affects how citizens learn about government actions. Lawmakers said electronic posting could save money and increase efficiency, but advocates for accessibility and continuity argued that statutory or administrative guardrails are needed so that legally required notice remains effective and universally reachable.
Next steps: The committee recommended moving SB2929 with technical amendments and incorporating several of Fritz’s suggestions; members left some detailed instructions to agency rulemaking.
