Last week, when searching through Facebook, something unusual was noticed on the Freestone County Sheriff’s Office page.
It was a picture of a horse (shown above), along with text of what appeared to be an official Notice of Estray.
Traditionally, such legal notices have always been published in the local newspapers in Freestone County, Texas.
There has been a push, in recent years, by governmental entities, all over the nation, to post public notices online, rather than in local newspapers.
The benefit, they say, is saving taxpayer money, as the cost of publishing legal notices, charged by the word, can quickly add up.
Opponents contend that not all citizens have access to the internet, and that it is unreasonable to require them to visit several different governmental websites to find public legal notices.
Publishing legal notices in the local newspaper is relatively inexpensive for a reader to access.
It is also convenient, as public notices from several different entities may be found, all in one place.
The Agriculture Code (Section 142.009.d), which regulates how estrays are handled, requires that a county sheriff’s office post a notice of impoundment in one of two places:
–In a newspaper of general circulation in the county (twice during the 15 days after the date of impoundment), or
–On the county’s Internet website (for at least 15 days after the date of impoundment).
Freestone County Times is one of three newspapers in our county which meets the criteria of a general circulation newspaper. However, the Notice of Estray was not found to be published in any of the the newspapers in Freestone County, last week.
The Freestone County website (www.co.freestone.tx.us) does include a link to “Public Notices & News.” However, there are no posted notices of impoundment to be found; only a calendar schedule of Open Meetings.
Upon inquiry, Freestone County Sheriff Jeremy Shipley says their office chose to post the Notice of Estray online.
Their Facebook page was utilized for this purpose because “that is what the Sheriff’s Office uses as their website.”
Why not use the County website, as stipulated by the Agriculture Code?
“We have no control over the county website,” says Sheriff Shipley, “I don’t even know who runs it.”
Additionally, says the Sheriff, “Nobody uses it.”
Facebook is a different story, according to Sheriff Shipley.
“You can reach so many people,” he says, relating that some of his Facebook posts have reached 15,000 people, and more.
There remains, however, a distinct difference between a governmental website and a social media presence.
According to Ed Sterling of the Texas Press Association, “[Texas] law does not contemplate social media in regards to public notices.”
On the other hand, some laws, such as the reference Agriculture Code, do address the term website.
Facebook.com is considered a website.
A Facebook page, such as the one used by the Freestone County Sheriff’s Office, is just one of many pages located on the Facebook website.
Joining the Facebook community is required in order to create a Facebook page.
However, as long as a page is created to be public, anyone with internet access may view that Facebook page.
So, what about citizens not on Facebook, or those who do not have access to the internet? How will they learn about public notices?
“I don’t know,” says Sheriff Shipley. “It we had the money, I guess we’d put it in the newspaper.”
Of course, citizens may very well hear about a legal notice from a third party.
Perhaps a friend or family member will tell them.
Or, maybe a newspaper or television station will report on it as a news story.
In the meantime, Sheriff Shipley plans to discover who is responsible for updating the county website, and plans to begin sending information from the Sheriff’s Office to be posted online at www.co.freestone.tx.us
Freestone County will begin working next month on the 2017-2018 budget. Citizens are encouraged to contact their Commissioners about these, and other, issues of importance.
HOW HARD CAN IT BE?
Searching the Internet for Legal Notices
How easy is it to find a public notice on the internet?
Our staff decided to conduct an experiment to see how quickly someone might find the Notice of Estray, such as the one for a horse (pictured above) that was recently posted on Facebook.
Since the laws governing Impoundment of Estray require posting a notice on the county’s Internet website, we first did a Google search for “Freestone County.”
As expected, first on the list is the Freestone County website at www.co.freestone.tx.us. Next on the search list was the “County Clerk” page on the same county website.
(As stated in the above article, the Freestone County website does not include an updated list of public notices).
Other search results included Wikipedia, Freestone Central Appraisal District, a genealogy website, Freestone County Tax Assessor, an article from Freestone County Times (that was not about a notice of estray), Texas State Historical Association, a real estate website, and another genealogy website.
We continued searching.
Halfway through Page 5 of our Google search revealed a website promising a public records search for Freestone County that, unfortunately, included NO public notices, whatsoever.
There was, however, a link to the County Sheriff’s office that took you to – you might guess it – the Freestone County website at www.co.freestone.tx.us
After page 10, we gave up the search.
Even though the Agriculture Code gives the option of posting on the County’s Internet website, it might be reasonable to assume that many livestock owners might check with the local Sheriff’s office, when looking for an estray.
So, we expanded our Google search to include “Freestone County Sheriff’s Office.”
First on the list is…the Internet website for Freestone County at www.co.freestone.tx.us
Second on the list is the Facebook page of the Freestone County Sheriff’s Office.
Since it is a public page, anyone with internet access may view it.
Pulling it up on the computer screen at work, at first glance, there is nothing that says “estray” or “notice.”
Scrolling down, a viewer sees an address, reviews, photos, videos and, finally, page posts.
On this day, it required scrolling down through a handful of posts, pictures and comments before getting to the sixth post, which included the picture and text of the official Notice of Estray.
Since then, the Sheriff’s Facebook page has had at least 11 more posts added to their page, moving the Notice of Estray down to number 17, as of press time.
The question remains: how many citizens are that knowledgeable, and that dedicated, to find a public legal notice, of any kind, on the internet during any given week.
Update: Sheriff Shipley reports finding that the County website is managed by a company from Waco. He remarked that some of the information is incorrect, including an email listed for the Sheriff’s office. “If anyone has sent me an email there, I haven’t gotten it!” he says.
