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Dylan Reingold, County Attorney <br />William K. DeBraal, Deputy County Attorney <br />Susan J. Prado, Assistant County Attorney <br />JA <br />County Attorney's Matters - B.C.C. 10. 4.22 <br />O ICe of <br />INDIAN RIVER COUNTY <br />MEMORANDUM <br />ATTORNEY <br />TO: Board of County Commissioners <br />FROM: Dylan Reingold, County Attorney <br />DATE: September 16, 2022 <br />SUBJECT: Website Publication of Legal Notices <br />BACKGROUND. <br />In 2022, the Florida Legislature enacted HB 7049, which made changes to the legal notices and official <br />advertisements provisions of the Florida Statutes. This memo outlines the new statutory requirements that <br />impact Indian River County. This law takes effect on January 1, 2023. The sections referenced below are <br />in the statutory format that will go into effect on January 2023. <br />Publication of Advertisements on Publicly Accessible Websites <br />Per section 50.011, Florida Statutes, Florida statutory official or legal advertisements in some instances <br />can be on a publicly accessible website as set forth in section 50.0311, Florida Statutes. Per section <br />50.0311(2), Florida Statutes, the term "publicly accessible website" means a county's official website or <br />other private website designated by the county for the publication of legal notices and advertisements that <br />is accessible via the Internet. All advertisements and public notices published on a website as provided in <br />this chapter must be in searchable form and indicate the date on which the advertisement or public notice <br />was first published on the website. <br />It is important to check specific publishing requirements when determining whether the county website <br />can be used for publication purposes. For instance, per section 125.66(2)(a), Florida Statutes, standard <br />ordinance notices need to meet the publication requirements as provided in chapter 50, Florida Statutes. <br />Thus, the County website would satisfy this requirement. However, per section 125.66(4)(b), when a <br />proposed ordinance changes the actual list of permitted, conditional, or prohibited uses within a zoning <br />category, or changes the actual zoning map designation of a parcel or parcels of land involving 10 <br />contiguous acres or more, the notice must be "published in the print edition of a newspaper" or mailed to <br />property owners. In this instance, it appears that publication by website is not an option. <br />Requirements of a Publicly Accessible County Website <br />Per section 50.0311(3), Florida Statutes, a governmental agency may use the publicly accessible website <br />of the county in which it lies to publish legally required advertisements and public notices if the cost <br />of publishing advertisements and public notices on such website is less than the cost of publishing <br />138 <br />C.IUse Wfc-pmdUppDamlLacallTemplOCL Tech.lagi,,L yPDF949CL@341F032648CL@341PoJ16.d- <br />