Legislature(1993 - 1994)
03/22/1993 09:12 AM Senate STA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SENATE STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
March 22, 1993
9:12 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Loren Leman, Chairman
Senator Robin Taylor
Senator Jim Duncan
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Mike Miller, Vice Chairman
Senator Johnny Ellis
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE BILL NO. 168
"An Act relating to newspapers of general circulation."
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 23
Proposing amendments to the Constitution of the State of
Alaska relating to the powers and duties of the legislative
auditor.
PREVIOUS SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION
SB 168 - No previous action to record.
SJR 23 - See State Affairs minutes dated 3/17/93.
WITNESS REGISTER
Jerry Burnett, Staff to Senator Randy Phillips
State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Offered information on SJR 23
Virginia Ragle, Assistant Attorney General
Department of Law
P.O. Box 110300
Juneau, AK 99811-0300
POSITION STATEMENT: Offered information on SB 168
Gerald Greeley
Anchorage Daily News
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Oppposed to SB 168
Bob Gould
Alaska Journal of Commerce
900 W. 5th Ave.
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified in support of SB 168
Art Snowden, Administrative Director
Alaska Court System
303 K St.
Anchorage, AK 99501-2084
POSITION STATEMENT: Offered information on SB 168
Terry Bannister, Legislative Legal Counsel
Division of Legal Services
Legislative Affairs Agency
130 Seward St., Suite 409
Juneau, AK 99801
POSITION STATEMENT: Offered information on SB 168
John McKay, Attorney representing the Anchorage
Daily News
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Opposes SB 168
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 93-21, SIDE A
Number 001
Chairman Leman called the Senate State Affairs Committee
meeting to order at 9:12 a.m.
SENATOR LEMAN brought SJR 23 (LEGISLATIVE AUDITOR'S POWERS)
before the committee as the first order of business.
Number 015
JERRY BURNETT, aide to Senator Randy Phillips, outlined
changes made in a proposed State Affairs committee
substitute. Concern was expressed at a previous hearing
that too much power was being given to one person.
The first change would allow the impoundment of money upon
approval by a majority of the members of the committee of
the legislature designated by law. The second change would
allow the reversal of an impoundment by a majority of the
committee that approved the impoundment order.
Number 038
SENATOR LEMAN asked for the pleasure of the committee.
Hearing no motion, he stated SJR 23 would be held in
committee for future consideration.
Number 050
SENATOR LEMAN introduced SB 168 (NEWSPAPER OF GENERAL
CIRCULATION DEFINED) as the next order of business. He
stated Gerald Greeley of the Anchorage Daily News and John
McKay, an attorney representing the Anchorage Daily News
would be testifying from Anchorage via the teleconference
network. However, Mr. Greely said they would hold off on
their comments until after hearing some of the testimony on
the legislation.
Number 100
BOB GOULD, Alaska Journal of Commerce, said the purpose of
SB 168 is to promote both competition and flexibility for
the purpose of publishing legal notices as required by
various state laws. He said Alaska is unique compared to
most other jurisdictions in the country in that those types
of notices are published in metropolitan daily newspapers
such as the Juneau Empire, the Anchorage Daily News, the
Fairbanks News-Miner. In most other jurisdictions, that
function is served by specialized publications that cater to
the readership that most likely have interest in and benefit
from publication of those notices.
Mr. Gould said the history of requesting legislation as
embodied in SB 168 comes after an attempt to accomplish the
same effort within the private sector. Title companies are
cautious by nature and are hesitant to change their status
quo without some type of further legislative specificity to
ensure that publication will not be challenged or, if
challenged, will probably bear minimal risk of success.
Mr. Gould said Alaska law is extremely vague on where notice
is required. It speaks to simply publication of general
circulation without further specificity. SB 168 attempts to
define that specificity, and the implication, once defined,
would be that title companies and others requiring legal
notice would have the certainty that they now lack to know
that alternative venues for publication are available. He
pointed out that this in no way disenfranchises any of the
current venues that publish these notices.
Number 185
SENATOR DUNCAN asked what other publications, other than the
Alaska Journal of Commerce, would fall under the new
definition. BOB GOULD answered it would include such
publications as the Eagle River Star and The Frontiersman.
Number 208
SENATOR LEMAN asked if providing this definition and a
circulation of at least 2,500 subscribers would disqualify
any of the smaller newspapers in the state that may be
providing legal notices right now. BOB GOULD responded that
to his knowledge, it won't as far as the main body of legal
notices are concerned, which are the real estate default
notices. He added that there are some other types of
notices that do not necessarily require publication in a
paper of general circulation, but simply require publication
in a newspaper.
SENATOR TAYLOR voiced his concern about the 2,500 bona fide
subscribers because The Wrangell Sentinel or The Petersburg
Pilot probably don't have that amount of subscribers. BOB
GOULD said the 2,500 number is totally subjective and was
based on a survey nationwide of what the appropriate number
would be.
Number 340
SENATOR LEMAN asked Mr. Gould to explain the second class
mailing permit and the two year requirement for continuous
publication. BOB GOULD said most of these papers in other
jurisdictions are not independently audited, however, the
large metro dailies are. The post office requirements to
get a second class permit require an annual post office
audit that verifies what a newspaper's circulation is, make
sure that it is paid to at least 50 percent of the total
printing cost, etc., so it was really designed to provide a
level of independent verification as to how a newspaper
complies with the requirements of the statute. Concerning
the two-year requirement, it verifies from between one year
and two years of continuous publication before a newspaper
would be eligible to qualify. The intent is to ensure that
the following that such papers build up will know where to
find these types of notices.
Number 372
ART SNOWDEN, Administrative Director, Alaska Court System,
noted that Judge Johnstone in the Third Judicial District
has authorized the Alaska Journal of Commerce to be a paper
of publication on a rotating basis. When no signifies a
specific paper, then one would go to the Anchorage Daily
News and the next one would go the Alaska Journal of
Commerce.
Mr. Snowden said there is a lot of research on what courts
have done around the country and what they look at as a
paper of general jurisdiction. Obviously, if there was a
statute saying what a paper of general jurisdiction for
legal notices were, the court would follow that because
that's a legislative determination, he said.
Number 390
SENATOR TAYLOR asked Mr. Snowden if he was aware of other
states where they have specific publications that are for
that purpose. ART SNOWDEN answered that there are a number
of them on the East Coast and that California has a number
of legal types of papers as well.
Number 410
SENATOR TAYLOR asked Ms. Bannister if, in her opinion, this
legislation comports with the intent of the legal
requirements currently existing in the Alaska Rules of Civil
Procedure. TERRY BANNISTER, Legislative Legal Counsel,
answered that this by itself doesn't change the court rules;
it just changes the statutes. The court system doesn't use
this term in the court rules, so it wouldn't be pulled in
that way.
Number 435
SENATOR LEMAN asked Ms. Bannister to comment on the two-year
circulation requirement and the 2,500 bona fide subscribers.
TERRY BANNISTER answered that in each of these cases there
would have to be established some definite rationale on why
those particular provisions are being included, and some
reasons why two years is better than one year.
Number 470
BOB GOULD commented that getting competition into the
marketplace would, in his view, result in cost savings in
some fashion.
Number 485
JOHN MCKAY, testifying from Anchorage on behalf of The
Anchorage Daily News, questioned the need for the
legislation if it is simply restating the current law. He
said he thinks everybody universally recognizes that the
Moore Decision makes it clear that all these papers are
newspapers of general circulation. What the legislation
seems to do is to change what exists now, which is a
marketplace decision, he said
Mr. McKay said he thought the legislation would have the
effect of disenfranchising a number of smaller newspapers
because their circulation is less than 2,500.
Mr. McKay said the purpose of public notice advertising is
to get notice to the public, which is a pretty fundamental
thing. He suggested that, ideally, if the statute is going
to be changed, the notices should be published in a way that
maximizes the chances of getting notice to the people that
are affected. He added that most states and most
jurisdictions will rely on their daily papers that service
most of the people and most people read, rather than
specialized publications like the Alaska Journal of Commerce
and legal publications.
TAPE 93-21, SIDE B
Number 001
Mr. McKay said it is virtually certain that over 95 percent
of the readership of the smaller publication is going to be
duplicated, so you are reaching not only the bankers and the
lawyers in the specialized publication, but also all the
other people who have an interest. You reach all the
bankers and all the lawyers with a larger publication and
you reach the common people who may have their property
being proposed on, or their neighbor's property, etc.
Number 075
SENATOR LEMAN asked if the Anchorage Daily News has ever
done a study on how many people read the legal notices in
their newspaper and how it compares with a percentage of
readers for a more specialized paper. JOHN MCKAY answered
that he is not aware that the Daily News or any of the
specialized papers have those figures available.
Number 112
VIRGINIA RAGLE, Department of Law, said Mr. Gould had
indicated that perhaps foreclosure notices comprise the
greatest volume of public notices that must be published.
However, the department has found that there are more than
80 statutes that contain references to newspapers of general
circulation, that require publication of various notices by
agencies, by individuals and by organizations. Some of the
statutes require that the notice be in a publication of
general circulation in the state, and some refer to the
relevant areas that this proposed legislation defines.
Ms. Ragle said an issue for some of the agencies that the
Department of Law represents will be not so much the
disenfranchisement of small newspapers as potentially the
disenfranchisement of the public in areas where local
newspapers provide their source of information.
Ms. Ragle also said the 2,500 paid circulation requirement
could be a problem for a number of newspapers and for the
public served by those newspapers in the state. Also, the
requirement that the publication be at least once a week for
fifty weeks out of the year could make publications such as
the Senior Voice, the Copper River Country Journal, the
Skagway News and the Arctic Sounder not eligible.
Ms. Ragle said the department has not had time to go through
all the 80 statutes that make reference to newspapers of
general circulation to find out which ones of them might
result in a local constituency not getting notice that
should be targeted. However, the department is willing to
make that kind of search and inform the committee on what
the possible impact will be as far as their agency clients
are concerned.
Number 150
BOB GOULD emphasized that until there is statutory
specificity, there are very certain specific interested
parties controlling the bulk of legal advertising that are
unwilling to upset the status quo. The Alaska Journal of
Commerce in favor of opening up the market and letting the
advertisers out there make their own decisions.
Number 200
SENATOR LEMAN asked Mr. McKay why, if this is already being
done, is there a problem with clarifying it in statute.
JOHN MCKAY answered there is always some concern about what
else the legislation is trying to do. He said there hasn't
been any testimony on language such as "relevant area,"
"insignificant circulation," etc. There is a general
concern about what is being done when there is no apparent
need for it, he said.
Number 275
There being no other witnesses to testify on SB 168, SENATOR
LEMAN stated the legislation would be held in committee for
further work. He then adjourned the meeting at 10:27 a.m.
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