Today's Law As Amended


Bill PDF |Add To My Favorites |Track Bill | print page

AB-2095 Publication: newspapers of general circulation.(2023-2024)



As Amends the Law Today


SECTION 1.
 The Legislature finds and declares as follows:
(a) For more than 100 years, the public has relied on newspapers to publish public notices informing our communities about public agency hearings, design reviews, school board budgets, trustee sales, estate administration petitions, fictitious business names, and hundreds of other important legal events of interest to the public. Through public notices that appear in legally adjudicated newspapers, the state has reached all corners of California, from sparsely populated rural areas to large urban enclaves. Public notices placed in local and ethnic newspapers have informed many diverse communities across the state and ensured access to key information about our state and local governments, citizens, and legal systems.
(b) As part of expanding public access to public notices, members of the public shall by law gain access to public notices on newspaper internet websites and a statewide internet website, currently capublicnotice.com, that is maintained as a joint venture of the majority of California newspapers and contains a searchable repository of state and local public notices. At the same time, it is important to maintain access to public notices for the millions of individuals who rely on newspapers to learn about matters of public interest. Online delivery of public notices to newspaper internet websites will ensure that Californians who rely on the internet for information will have the opportunity to access public notices, while newspaper delivery of public notices will ensure that the many diverse, local, and elderly readers of newspapers will also have access to this critical public information.

SEC. 2.

 Section 6009 is added to the Government Code, immediately following Section 6008, to read:

6009.
 (a) When any public notice is legally required by a statute, ordinance, bylaw, or judicial order to be published in a newspaper of general circulation, that notice shall be published in and on all of the following:
(1) The newspaper’s print publication.
(2) The newspaper’s internet website or electronic newspaper available on the internet.
(3) The statewide internet website maintained as a repository for notices by a majority of California newspapers of general circulation, as described in this section. The newspaper in which the notice is published shall be responsible for publishing notices on the statewide internet website.
(b) (1) In accordance with subdivision (a), a newspaper publishing a notice that has an internet website operated by that newspaper shall also place the notice on the statewide internet website and on a statewide internet website maintained by an entity with the capacity to receive and upload legal notices from the majority of newspapers in this state as a repository for the notices.
(2) Posting on an internet website shall begin on the first day of placement on the internet website and shall run continuously until the expiration of the specified time legally required for that type of notice.
(3) Each notice required to be placed on the newspaper’s internet website shall remain valid if it meets all of the requirements of this section, and the legality of the newspaper publication shall not be affected by the failure of the newspaper for any reason to upload legal notice publications to a statewide internet website or to another internet website or to accurately post the notice publication on any internet website.
(c) If a newspaper does not maintain its own internet website, publication on the statewide internet website and reference to the statewide internet website in the print publication notice shall satisfy the requirement of publication on the newspaper’s internet website.
(d) An error in the legal notice published on a newspaper’s internet website or the statewide internet website that is a result of either (1) an error of the internet website operator; or (2) a temporary internet website outage or service interruption that prevents the publication or display of a legal notice on the internet website shall not constitute a defect in publication of the legal notice, if the legal notice appears correctly in the newspaper’s print publication and satisfies all other legal notice requirements. Failure to post or maintain a public notice on the newspaper’s internet website or to post a public notice on the statewide public notice internet website does not affect the validity of the public notice.
(e) (1) A newspaper or the statewide internet website shall not charge a fee or surcharge specifically to access public notices on their internet website. However a newspaper may continue to charge a fee or surcharge for access to other content on their internet website, including, but not limited to, public notices published by the newspaper.
(2) A newspaper shall not charge an additional fee or surcharge specifically for posting to the statewide internet website.
(f) A public notice that is published in a newspaper of general circulation that has five or fewer employees is exempt from the requirements of paragraphs (2) and (3) of subdivision (a) until January 1, 2028.
(g) (1) The statewide internet website shall not sell or share the personal information of consumers or use it for any purposes other than those explicitly outlined in this section.
(2) For purposes of this subdivision, the following terms have the following meanings:
(A) “Sell” has the same definition as “sell” in subdivision (ad) of Section 1798.140 of the Civil Code.
(B) “Share” has the same definition as “share” in subdivision (ah) of Section 1798.140 of the Civil Code.
(C) “Personal information” has the same definition as “personal information” in subdivision (v) of Section 1798.140 of the Civil Code.