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Show GUEST EDITORIAL Less Government Accountability Or More? Bonnie Miller, Publisher Intermouuntain Commercial RecordSalt Lake Times A lobbyist for the League of Cities and Towns once said that the state had no right to tell the counties they should publish delinquent property tax notices. He was wrong. It takes the power of the state or federal government govern-ment to ensure that local governments cannot abuse a citizen's rights. One of these rights is due process, as found in the Constitution. At issue before the Utah Legislature this session is the publication of the delinquent property tax notice, HB95. Property owners and others who have financial interests inter-ests in the December delinquent tax list are beneficiaries of the due process clause. The right to due process as established in the Constitution requires that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Due process guarantees a citizen's Constitutional and property rights. Due process also requires that known and unknown citizens with financial interests in tax delinquent property who might be affected by the loss of that property should receive public notice. In the past, mailed notice served as notice for known interests and publication in a newspaper serves as notice for those who cannot be reached or have another financial finan-cial interest in the property such as a lien or second mortgage. mort-gage. Published newspaper notice has always been the independent inde-pendent third party-vehicle to reach the public. Utah's code also requires newspaper notice for various government govern-ment actions, including, but not limited to, unclaimed property notification, the voter's guide, transportation bids, and delinquent corporation notices. However, in the last decade, those who are responsible for publishing required notices have pushed for eliminating elimi-nating or watering them down, sometimes at the same time they were consulting with the state on technology matters. As a result, the voter guide and unclaimed property prop-erty notices once placed in newspapers, are now published pub-lished by the state, and at least in one circumstance failed to qualify as public notice. The Treasury Times, published pub-lished from the Treasurer's office, because it carried a newspaper name, had no second-class mailing certificate, certifi-cate, and broke the criteria for an insert in other newspapers, newspa-pers, failed to comply with the law's requirements for publishing notice. However, being the state, no one came forth to challenge the publication. Newspapers are required by the state to meet certain standards in order to publish public notice the time, duration, dura-tion, size of audience, etc. The government has no standards stan-dards to meet other than its own. Over the last decade, electronic notice has been inserted insert-ed or replaced published notice in some of the code. A most glaring and recent example is in HB95, currently before the legislature. If this HB95 passes, counties will send one notice to delinquent property owners, whether it gets to them or not, and then put the list on the county Web page which isn't exactly a popular destination. And while newspapers that publish public notice must meet : requirements to carry such notice, the Web pages will ' not fulfill any of the requirements since the publisher is : . (See GUEST EDITORIAL on page '7-A) Guest Editorial From Page 2-A a government Web page. : Unfortunately, public notice has also lost favor with '. government agencies or politicians required to provide it, possibly because the agencies do not think the public I understands what they are about to do in the public's -' interest. All government agencies earnestly believe they have a mandate but believe they know what is best for citizens. To them, notice to the public is a nuisance as are provid- ing access to records, meeting-notices, and open meet- ings. There is little enthusiasm for shedding light on gov-; ernment agendas. . ; Although the counties do not feel the state has the ; right to make them publish the delinquent list, and mul-; tiple lobbyists from the state have convinced the ; Republican legislators that the county's Web page is suf- ficient, the state should continue to support the public's right to access open records, to go to meetings, and to I have the opportunity to know their State and locaK administrators have methodically pushed to amend notice laws to place public notice from government -agencies in government publications and on government Web pages. These attacks not only conflict with the purpose to;: provide notice to citizen property owners, but conflict; with government's duty to give accounting notice to the public. But the government should not do its own: accounting notice any more than own its own newspa-per. newspa-per. Accounting notice informs citizens about govern-" ment's actions that might adversely affect a citizen's interests. As newspapers and the public became more critical of ' government actions, government has become less open. The result is fewer meeting notices, more attempts to-: bypass open meeting laws, hidden agendas, and less government accounting. HB95 originated with county -governments; it is not the people's bill. Citizens, now is not the time to require less government accountability, ; but to require more. |