Appreciates legal notices in papers

I oppose House Bill 1869 reducing the requirement that governments publish legal notices in newspapers. I read the legal notices in all the newspapers. Had I not read about a proposed $20 million bond issue for Batavia Park District, our citizens would have had no input and it would have been a done deal.

There was no information about the bond issue on the park district's website and even after we brought it up, we could not access information. I'm sure you're aware of all that happened as a result of that issue and I would venture that this is just another attempt at ensuring that the people are not apprised of the goings on in government.

Another, more recent example is the Batavia Park District's latest $440,000 bond issue. There was never a notice on their website — no website notice of a public hearing, no website notice of the date of the final vote — and there is no agenda information on the website, just that a meeting is going to be held.

This is a classic example of government abuse.

I talked to thousands of people while we were gathering signatures for the petition and most of them do not have Internet access and rely solely on word-of-mouth or newspapers for their information. Those of us who do have Internet access are continually frustrated by the lack of updates on government websites and the difficulty of accessing information that is already there. There are menus upon menus upon menus and no website operates the same as the other. As a result, people get frustrated.

I believe that audits for fraud, waste and abuse would do more to save money that limiting public access to information.

Yvonne Dinwiddie

Batavia