Youngstown Daily Legal News

Proposal made to allow governments to deliver certain notices electronically

KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: July 18, 2018

In a session early last week Ohio senators unanimously approved a measure to authorize some state agencies, local governments and other boards, commissions and officers to deliver certain notices by ordinary mail and electronically instead of by costly certified mail.

House Bill 34 is the culmination of a two-year collaboration with county and township associations that considered state law requirements of government entities to send official notices via certified mail, according to Rep. Steve Hambley, R-Brunswick, a joint sponsor of the bill.

"The purpose of certified mail is to provide an indisputable record that an article was actually delivered, or attempted to be delivered to a recipient," he explained to lawmakers during previous testimony. "Many state, county, and local governments have found the certified mail requirement for many specific circumstances to be redundant, if not the most expensive way to verify that an official notice has been delivered to an interested party."

The considerations, the lawmaker said, are exemplary of good government - essential and proper, timely notice in an economic manner that best manages public, finite resources.

HB 34 would replace the certified-mail requirement for a number of specific official notices with the following language: "Either by certified mail or if the board has record of an internet identifier associated with the holder, by ordinary mail and by that internet identifier of record."

An internet identifier of record may be an email address, website contact form or other applicable way of contact on record with the authority sending the official notice, according to the language of the bill.

"It is important to note that we have taken the language for this from the Ohio Revised Code section 2950.," Hambley said. "This section deals with notifying sex abuse victims that their abusers have changed residency."

Several other notice requirements that would be changed by the bill involve situations in which the government is depriving an individual of a property interest, according to the Ohio Legislative Service Commission's analysis of the bill.

"For example, the bill authorizes a county treasurer to notify a property owner by ordinary mail and internet identifier of record that the owner's property has been sold in a delinquent property tax certificate sale, which could result in the property's eventual foreclosure," Emily Wendel wrote for the commission. "Thus, the bill might be challenged by a person arguing that notice by ordinary mail and Internet identifier of record may not satisfy procedural due process notice requirements."

Before any individual can be deprived of a property or liberty interest, he must be afforded the due process of receiving appropriate notice, state and federal law require.

"Specifically, procedural due process requires 'notice reasonably calculated, under all the circumstances, to apprise interested parties of the pendency of the action and afford them an opportunity to present their objections,'" Wendel continued. "This is sometimes referred to as the 'reasonableness under the circumstances test.'

"Notice that does not meet this test may serve to invalidate the deprivation of the underlying interest."

Hambley reassured fellow lawmakers that the bill's due process concerns had been addressed by HB 34's definition of internet identifier of record, which means an electronic mail address or any other designation used for self-identification or routing in internet communication or posting, provided for the purpose of receiving communication.

"I believe that the operative word 'provided' indicates clearly that in order to satisfy the 'reasonableness of the circumstances test' mentioned in the LSC analysis that the 'internet identifier of record' should have been provided by the intended recipient of those notices for those purposes," the lawmaker said.

He said the objective of the bill is to minimize costs related to official communications between government agencies as well as to specific interested parties.

"We have no official estimate for the financial impact of House Bill 34, but I would contend that over the long run it could mean millions of dollars in savings to various government agencies across the state of Ohio," Hambley said. "Let's allow our government agencies to save taxpayers money by using electronic mail and internet-based communications under specific circumstances rather than rely primarily upon costlier certified mail services dating back to the 1950s to achieve the same purpose - i.e., the delivery of essential communication or notices of government action to interested parties in a timely and reliable manner."

Republican Rep. Scott Ryan of Newark is joint sponsor of the bill.

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