Relating to publication requirements for official publications, and including effective date provisions

This bill relates to official publications by government bodies, defined in the bill. The bill requires the minutes of proceedings of a city council meeting to be delivered to a newspaper for publication within days. This provision of the bill takes effect upon enactment. The bill requires a newspaper designated for official publication purposes to have been in regular publication in the area for at least one year instead of two years. If the newspaper maintains an internet site, the bill requires the newspaper to provide free public access to public notices on the internet site and display a link to the statewide public notice internet site, if such a site exists. If the statewide public notice internet site exists, the bill also requires a newspaper designated for official publication to publish the address of the internet site in each edition of the newspaper and on the newspaper’s internet site where public notices are customarily published, and to post all notices and reports of proceedings to the statewide public notice internet site within hours of receipt. This provision of the bill takes effect July 1, 2025. The bill allows a statewide association representing a majority of newspapers in this state to operate and maintain a statewide public notice internet site containing all notices and reports of proceedings required by statute to be published in a newspaper. The bill provides specific requirements for access to and use of the internet site that an internet site must meet to qualify as a statewide public notice internet site. This provision of the bill takes effect July 1, 2025. The bill allows public notice requirements for a notice to be satisfied through publication of the notice to a newspaper’s internet site. The bill sets the rate paid by a government body for publication to a newspaper’s internet site at percent of the rate established in the Code for publication in a printed newspaper. The bill requires a newspaper that publishes a public notice on its internet site to publish the notice within hours of receipt and to make the notice available at no cost to the public. The bill makes an error in publication to an internet site harmless if the notice was also published in a newspaper as required by law or on the official internet site of all counties in which notice is required to be given to any person. If no newspaper meeting the requirements established in the Code for designation of an official newspaper exists in a county, the bill allows public notice requirements to be satisfied with respect to that county by publication of the notice or report of proceedings on the official internet site of that county. This provision of the bill takes effect upon enactment. If a newspaper refuses to publish a public notice, the bill allows a government body to satisfy public notice requirements by publishing the notice on the internet site of the government body and forwarding the public notice to each county in which notice is required to be given to any person. The bill requires a county receiving such a notice to publish the notice on the county’s internet site within hours of receipt. This provision of the bill takes effect upon enactment. The bill prohibits a newspaper from charging a fee to a government body for proof of publication of a public notice. This provision of the bill takes effect upon enactment. The bill requires a newspaper to publish all public notices and reports of proceedings required by law to be published by a certain date within hours of receipt, except under certain circumstances. If the newspaper publishes less than daily, the bill requires the newspaper to publish the notice within hours of the next scheduled publication of the newspaper. If the newspaper maintains an internet site, the bill allows the newspaper to instead publish the public notice on the internet site within hours of receipt if the notice is made available to the public at no cost. If a newspaper fails to timely or accurately publish a public notice, the bill requires the newspaper to refund all moneys received to publish the notice. In the case of a notice that was not timely or accurately published by a newspaper, a government body still satisfies public notice requirements if the notice was published on the official internet site of all counties in which notice was required to be given to any person. This provision of the bill takes effect upon enactment. The bill requires disputes arising between a government body and a newspaper regarding the publication of a notice or report of proceedings to be heard by the Iowa public information board as a contested case proceeding.