WHAT’S HANGINg ? ongoing art exhibitions CIVICS & SERVICES CALENDAR

This calendar is a place listing (for free) the typical meeting dates for area governmental bodies, and Please email us with these meetings, or use the form on our Community Calendar page — let's build community together: editor@valleysentinelnews.com

May 22: the notice — usually in the form of the agenda — is reasonably likely to apprise members of the public and the news media of what action the public body will be taking.

A recent review of our website stats for valleysentinelnews.com showed that our top click over at least the past quarter was our public notices tab on the main menu. Which surprised us.

Previously, that clicked through to the Wisconsin Newspaper Association’s public notice page that only included public and legal notices published in area papers, for things like bids and foreclosures, etc.

It was clear to us that the community was looking for an accessible one-stopshop for actual meeting notices, agendas of local government meetings.

In continuance of our mission to foster civic engagement and information, we put together a comprehensive, dynamic page that puts them all in one place. Not only is it our top click, but we know how important it is for businesses to know what decisions are going to be made at the local level that affect them.

We also wanted to offer a unique promotional opportunity as well, for a business that cares as much as we do about open government.

Valley Sentinel has submitted a Wis. Stat. § 19.84(1)(b) news media request for notice of all meetings of area governmental bodies and their subunits. This notice to Valley Sentinel as news media that has requested is required for meetings to be considered properly noticed. When news media request notice under Wis. Stat. 19.84(1) (b) it is separate from the notice given to the public, but equally as necessary. Further, Wis. Stats. § 19.96 & 19.97 prescribe the forfeitures possible when notice isn’t proper and state any action taken at a meeting of a governmental body held in violation is potentially voidable.

MEETING: Plain Village Library Board Meeting 6:30 PM

510 Main Street, Plain villageofplain.com

May 24:

MEETING: Village of Spring Green Board Meeting 7:00 PM In person and virtual event 154 N. Lexington Street, Spring Green vi.springgreen.wi.gov

May 30:

MEETING: Arena Village Board Meeting 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM Village Hall, 345 West Street, Arena villageofarena.net

Best Of The River Valley Reader Poll

The page is reminiscent of a community cork board — something we'd still like to erect in a future downtown Spring Green office — except it comprehensively lists the governmental meetings of our entire area. The board will endeavor to contain the most recent prior or upcoming meeting of each area board (with links to click through to the governments' pages if the update isn't timely or is short notice). Clerks or chief presiding officers usually send out the notices on average between one week and 24 hours before the meetings — obviously the more notice the better. The page will not contain notices for committees and subunits, or minutes — however, again, links to governmental body websites where many of those can be found are included. Many items are discussed in committees and those meetings are often the best time to provide public input. Some items on subunits’ agendas — like a plan commission or public safety committee — may not need approval by a village or town board, so it’s important to check governmental websites regularly. Legal notices will also not appear on the board individually, but a link to those on the Wisconsin Newspaper Association's website is included on the board.

What is public notice? What is news media notice? Wis. Stat. 19.84 outlines the various ways a public body — such as a village or town board — needs to provide proper notice of its meetings.

Best practice is to post those notices in a mix of ways most likely to apprise residents and those interested, including posting in designated places or online. But this does not discharge the independent duty to inform the media that has requested notice, something even seasoned clerks sometimes aren't aware of.

Other requirements include at least 24 hours notice, generally, and requirements that the subject matter of

Public notice is often confused with paid legal notices, which are required by statute for certain meetings and hearings, foreclosures, bids and other notices. You can find a link to those above in local newspapers at the bottom of the cork board. What Valley Sentinel has requested are emails from the clerks of local public bodies with notice of upcoming meetings and their agenda items. These meetings may additionally need legal notice, but that’s a sidebar. Why is this important? The legislature thought that informing the press was independently important because the press can play a vital role, not just transmitting the notice to the people, but also looking deeper, investigating, commenting, bringing out different perspectives and connections. We believe that as well. This is important to us because if we’re not getting notice as a newspaper it’s likely you’re not getting notice either.

Recent studies have shown civic engagement and strong local journalism directly correlate to a number of local government metrics like local government bond rates, including rates to fund government infrastructure projects. For example, where robust local journalism disappears or is lax, local government borrowing costs increase because less information is publicly available, and local officials are no longer monitored as closely, reducing the quality of governance. Simply put, the financial sector views an area with low civic engagement and lax or nonexistent local journalistic oversight as a risky investment. Without open government it becomes increasingly hard for us to do our public service for the community as the fourth estate.

In the same vein, we're always looking for community contributors to record or cover area governmental meetings. Coverage can be topically or comprehensive, but we can't do it alone.

The page can be found within the menu on our homepage or at: valleysentinelnews.com/publicmeeting-notices/