A good year for public notice in Nevada

Our primary focus this legislative session was Senate Bill 287, the public records bill we supported that was signed by the governor on June 13. We took offense on that one, participating in the Right to Know Nevada coalition and lobbying throughout the session for the bill’s passage. We were able to devote attention and resources to the effort in part because we weren’t required to play much defense this session.

 

Most importantly, we didn’t face any potentially cataclysmic pieces of legislation this year, like the bill in 2017 that would have allowed broadcasters to run public notice advertising in lieu of newspapers. In fact, most bills this session that had anything to do with public notice added new notice requirements. 

 

We tracked seven pieces of legislation this year that would have had a modest impact on public notice in the state. We actively opposed only one — Assembly Bill 1, which would have eliminated newspaper notice for hearings on new air pollution regulations proposed by the State Environmental Commission and local air pollution boards in Clark and Washoe counties. AB 1 died in the Senate after passing the Assembly, so those agencies must continue to publish three notices for each of those hearings.

 

Three of the bills we tracked would have added new notices in limited circumstances. Two of them passed. 

 

AB 270 requires regional transportation commissions to publish notice in a newspaper to advertise the sale of property acquired through eminent domain that is no longer needed for public use. AB 79 requires county treasurers to publish newspaper and government website notice before determining that tax-delinquent property has been abandoned. It also allows them to publish notice in a newspaper (“at least once a week for four consecutive weeks”) to advertise the sale of such property as an option in lieu of the physical posting of the notice in at least “three public places in the county.”

 

The other bill that passed that had minor public-notice implications was AB 345, high-profile legislation that included various provisions making it easier for Nevadans to vote, including same-day registration. The state’s election law includes various mandates requiring newspaper notice. AB 345 maintained most of those mandates, but it also eliminated one newspaper notice while adding another: Election officials are no longer required to publish summaries of statewide referendums in newspapers, but they must now publish notice of the polling-place locations where people are entitled to vote by personal appearance. They are also still required to publish newspaper notice of election dates, and the location and hours of polling places, but they no longer need to  include the names of candidates, and the offices they are seeking, in the notice.

 

These are all modest changes that will have little direct impact on your paper. But the fact that the Nevada Legislature continues to  rely on newspapers as the primary means of official notice in the state bodes well for the immediate future.

 

Here’s a spreadsheet with brief descriptions of all of the bills NPA tracked in the 2019 session: