On February 14, 2019, MML staff testified in support of SB 324 before the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee. The bill, sponsored by Senator Young, authorizes a county or municipality to publish legal notices on its website instead of in a newspaper of general circulation. This was an MML priority bill for several years in the early 2010’s.
The legislation would still require a local government to take out a smaller advertisement in the legal notices section of a newspaper of general circulation to provide information relative to what action the local government is proposing to take, where the legal notice is posted online, and how to subscribe to a free mail subscription service that the municipality would be required to provide. Additionally, the local government must maintain paper copies of the legal notices under their records retention and document disposal schedule.
If you have any questions, please contact Justin Fiore at justinf@mdmunicipal.org or (410) 295-9100.