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H. B. No. 443 As IntroducedAs Introduced
127th General Assembly | Regular Session | 2007-2008 |
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Cosponsors:
Representatives Raussen, Evans, Brown, Fende
A BILL
To amend sections 7.12 and 5721.01 and to enact
sections 7.16, 125.181, 125.182, 125.183, and
5721.012
of the Revised Code to establish the
State-Sanctioned Public Notice web site, to
permit any notice required to be published by
statute or rule to be published on the web site,
and to make changes to the qualifications for
newspapers publishing public notices and the
methods by which newspapers publish notice.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That sections 7.12 and 5721.01 be amended and
sections 7.16, 125.181, 125.182, 125.183, and 5721.012
of the
Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:
Sec. 7.12. Whenever any legal publication is required by
law
to be made in a newspaper published in a municipal
corporation,
county, or other political subdivision, the
newspaper shall also
be a newspaper of general circulation in the
municipal
corporation, county, or other political subdivision,
without
further restriction or limitation upon a selection of the
newspaper to be used. If no newspaper is published in such
municipal corporation, county, or other political subdivision,
such legal publication shall be made in any newspaper of general
circulation therein. If there are less than two newspapers
published in any municipal corporation, county, or other
political
subdivision in the manner defined by this section, then
any legal
publication required by law to be made in a newspaper
published in
a municipal corporation, county, or other political
subdivision
may be made in any newspaper regularly issued at
stated intervals
from a known office of publication located
within the municipal
corporation, county, or other political
subdivision. As used in
this section, a known office of
publication is a public office
where the business of the
newspaper is transacted during the usual
business hours, and such
office shall be shown by the publication
itself.
In addition to all other requirements, a newspaper or
newspaper of general circulation, except those publications
performing the functions described in section 2701.09 of the
Revised Code for a period of one year immediately preceding any
such publication required to be made, shall be a publication
bearing a title or name, regularly issued as frequently as once a
week for a definite price or consideration paid for by not less
than fifty per cent of those to whom distribution is made, having
a second class mailing privilege, being not less than four pages,
published continuously during the immediately preceding one-year
period, and circulated generally in the political subdivision in
which it is published. Such publication must be of a type to
which
the general public resorts for passing events of a
political,
religious, commercial, and social nature, current
happenings,
announcements, miscellaneous reading matter,
advertisements, and
other notices, that has at least twenty-five per cent editorial,
nonadvertising content, exclusive of inserts, measured relative to
total publication space, and an audited circulation to at least
fifty per cent of the households in the newspaper's retail trade
zone as defined by the audit.
Any notice required to be published in a newspaper of general
circulation may appear on an insert placed in such a newspaper. A
responsible party who is required to publish such a notice shall
consider various advertising media to determine which media might
reach the intended public most broadly. The responsible party need
publish the notice in only one qualified medium to meet the
requirements of law.
Sec. 7.16. A notice required to be published by a provision
of a statute or rule may be published on the state-sanctioned
public notice web site. A responsible party who is required to
publish such a notice may submit a copy of the notice and a
request for publication to the state-sanctioned public notice web
site service provider, together with the fee charged. The
responsible party shall identify in the notice or request the
provision of the statute or rule that requires the notice to be
published. The responsible party may, but is not required to,
prepare the request on the form that can be downloaded from the
web site. The notice permitted under this section is cumulative
with other notice provisions under statute or rule.
Sec. 125.181. The state-sanctioned public notice web site
service provider shall publish on the state-sanctioned public
notice web site a notice that is submitted to the service provider
and that is required to be published by a provision of a statute
or rule. The service provider shall collect from the responsible
party submitting the notice a fee for posting the notice on the
state-sanctioned public notice web site.
The service provider shall set the fee, not to exceed ten
dollars. The fee initially set may not thereafter be increased
until two years have elapsed. The service provider shall publish
the amount of the fee on the web site.
Sec. 125.182. The office of information technology shall
select a web site service provider to establish, operate, and
maintain, and to fund the operation, establishment, and
maintenance of, the state-sanctioned public notice web site. The
provider shall have all the following qualifications:
(A) Possesses appropriate hardware infrastructure and
intellectual property for feasible processes deploying a
state-sanctioned and national web site with appropriate methods
for communicating with the courts of this state;
(B) Possesses sufficient minimal capital resources to
establish and ensure smooth and uninterrupted ongoing operation of
the state-sanctioned public notice web site;
(C) Provides a reasonable plan for implementing the
state-sanctioned public notice web site so that notices required
to be published by a statute or rule may be posted and published
on the state-sanctioned public notice web site with reasonable
ease;
(D) Demonstrates, and is capable of implementing, the
technology necessary for the state-sanctioned public notice web
site at no cost to the state;
(E) Employs personnel, in number and by qualification, who
are necessary to ensure smooth transmission of data to and the
posting and publication of notices on the state-sanctioned public
notice web site;
(F) Posts a bond in an amount to be determined by the office
of information technology that is sufficient to guarantee
operation of the state-sanctioned public notice web site as the
public interest requires.
The service provider shall bear the costs of establishing,
operating, and maintaining the state-sanctioned public notice
web
site. The state neither has nor may assume liability for those
costs.
Sec. 125.183. In establishing, maintaining, and operating the
state-sanctioned public notice web site, the web site service
provider shall do all of the following:
(A) Use a domain name for the web site that will be easily
recognizable and remembered by and understandable to users of the
web site;
(B) Maintain the web site so that it is fully accessible to
and searchable by members of the public at all times;
(C) Not charge a fee to a person who accesses, searches, or
otherwise uses the web site;
(D) Ensure that notices displayed on the web site conform to
the requirements that would apply to the notices as if they were
being published in a newspaper or other publication, as directed
in the relevant provision of the statute or rule;
(E) Ensure that notices continue to be displayed on the web
site for not less than the length of time required by the relevant
provision of the statute or rule;
(F) Devise and display on the web site a form that may be
downloaded and used to request publication of a notice on the web
site;
(G) Charge responsible parties submitting notices for
publication on the web site only the fee fixed by the service
provider;
(H) Enable responsible parties to submit notices and requests
for their publication and to pay the fee charged therefor on-line;
(I) Maintain an archive of notices that no longer are
displayed on the web site;
(J) Enable notices, both those currently displayed and those
archived, to be accessed by key word, by party name, by case
number, by county, and by other useful identifiers;
(K) Maintain adequate systemic security and backup features,
and develop and maintain a contingency plan for coping with and
recovering from power outages, systemic failures, and other
unforeseeable difficulties;
(L) Maintain the web site in such a manner that it will not
infringe legally protected interests, so that vulnerability of the
web site to interruption because of litigation or the threat of
litigation is reduced;
(M) Submit a status report to the secretary of state twice
annually that demonstrates compliance with the statutory
requirements governing publication of notices;
(N) Submit to a quality review, if the director of the office
of information technology requests.
The service provider shall bear the expense of maintaining
the state-sanctioned public notice web site domain name.
In the course of a quality review, the director of the office
of information technology is entitled to, and the service provider
shall provide, full access to the hardware and software used by,
and the technical and informational operations of, the service
provider that relate to operation and maintenance of the
state-sanctioned public notice web site.
Sec. 5721.01. (A) As used in this chapter:
(1) "Delinquent lands" means all lands upon which
delinquent
taxes, as defined in section 323.01 of the Revised
Code, remain
unpaid at the time a settlement is made between the
county
treasurer and auditor pursuant to division (C) of section
321.24
of the Revised Code.
(2) "Delinquent vacant lands" means all lands that have
been
delinquent lands for at least two years and that are
unimproved by
any dwelling.
(B) As used in sections 5719.04, 5721.03,
and 5721.31 of the
Revised
Code and in any other sections of the Revised Code to
which those
sections are applicable, a newspaper or newspaper of
general
circulation shall be a publication bearing a title or
name,
regularly issued as frequently as once a week for a definite
price or consideration paid for by not less than fifty per cent
of
those to whom distribution is made, having a second class
mailing
privilege, being not less than four pages, published
continuously
during the immediately preceding one-year period,
and circulated
generally in the political subdivision in which it
is published.
Such publication shall be of a type to which the
general public
resorts for passing events of a political,
religious, commercial,
and social nature, current happenings,
announcements,
miscellaneous reading matter, advertisements, and
other notices,
that has at least twenty-five per cent editorial, nonadvertising
content, exclusive of inserts, measured relative to total
publication space, and an audited circulation to at least fifty
per cent of the households in the newspaper's retail trade zone as
defined by the audit.
Sec. 5721.012. Any notice required to be published in a
newspaper or newspaper of general circulation as defined in
section 5721.01 of the Revised Code may appear on an insert placed
in such a newspaper. A responsible party who is required to
publish such a notice shall consider various advertising media to
determine which media might reach the intended public most
broadly. The responsible party need publish the notice in only one
qualified medium to meet the requirements of law.
Section 2. That existing sections 7.12 and 5721.01 of the
Revised Code are hereby repealed.
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