Bill seeks greater local government access
The Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee heard testimony Feb. 6 on a bill aimed to increase access to local government information.
LB521, introduced by Imperial Sen. Mark Christensen, would require all classes of cities and villages that have an official website to publish their ordinances on the website effective Jan. 1, 2014.
The bill also would require all public bodies with an official website to publish their meeting notices and agendas on the website.
Both provisions would be in addition to current requirements for publishing public notices and agendas.
“LB521 seeks to provide greater access to local government and their actions for the residents of Nebraska,” Christensen said. “If you want your people informed and to know what’s going on, it should be easily accessible.”
Alan Peterson of ACLU Nebraska testified in support of the bill, saying citizens should be made aware of ordinances that they could be punished for violating.
He cited three instances that resulted in complaints to the ACLU when residents of Nebraska towns were denied full access to city ordinances by town clerks. Having the information available on the Internet would increase access, Peterson said.
Gary Krumland of the League of Nebraska Municipalities testified in opposition to the bill, saying many small towns and villages lack the staff and resources to comply with the bill as written.
“You’re not just dealing with large cities with large staffs who update their websites every day,” he said, adding that many small communities likely would chose to drop their websites if the bill were passed.
Jack Cheloha, testifying on behalf of the city of Omaha, also opposed the bill. Omaha is committed to transparency in government, he said, but would have over 150 years’ worth of documents to process and place on the city’s website under LB521.
“We probably have, through the years, over 40,000 ordinances that have been passed,” Cheloha said.
The committee took no immediate action on the bill.
