Overview

Public notices, hearings, and meetings may be defined within nVIRO to provide the public with information about an application or proposed permit, and to provide access to related documents. These are implemented as a type of event ("Public Notice/Hearing/Meeting") that may be added from a submission record.

When a public notice becomes active (based on the public notice start date), the public notice and associated documents are made available to the public. This information is accessible via a link on the nVIRO Public Home Page, which provides the ability to search and view all public notices, hearings, and meetings. Furthermore, the public can submit comments online.

In these sections, functionality referenced as public notice is also applicable to public hearings and public meetings, unless specifically called out as being different.

Adding a Public Notice

Public notices are added from a submission record in the Application/Request functional area only.

Important Note!

If the agency public notices draft permits instead of (or in addition to) applications, those permit documents will still be available to attach to the public notice when adding a public notice from the related application submission. In other words, even if you want to public notice a permit, you need to go to the details page for the related application or permit change form and add the public notice event from there, as shown below.

To add a new public notice:

Navigate to the desired submission.
Navigate to the Events tab for the submission.
Click the Add Event button.
Click Add Public Notice. The New Event page is displayed:

Controls

The following fields are available on the New Event page.

Field	Description
Event Type	Standardized event type which further defines the type of public notice.
Start Date	The first day that the public notice will be available to view and the public can comment. If the notice is a public hearing or meeting, it represents the date of the hearing or meeting.
End Date	The last day that the public notice will be available to view and be commented on by the public.
Coverage	Coverage is used to designate how the public notice appears in searches on the public site. Coverage may be set to one of three values: Facility Location - When the public user searches on the County in which the facility is located, this public notice will appear in the search results. Multi-County - When the public user searches on any of the counties specified in the Coverage Counties list, this public notice will appear in the search results. State-wide - When the public user searches on any county in the state, this public notice will appear in the search results.
Permit	If the event type is Public Notice - Draft Permit, the user will need to indicate the specific linked permit. The permits available for linking will be limited to those connected to an "In Process" workflow on the submission.
Compliance Action	If the event type is Public Notice - Pending Compliance Action, select a Pending Compliance Action.
Coverage Counties	This field appears when the user selects Multi-County as the coverage. The user may check one or more applicable counties where the public notice should appear in the search results.
Comment	Free form comment/description related to the public notice event. This text appears externally to the public as the "Public Notice Description".
Link Document(s) to Event	When this button is clicked, a list of documents is displayed with checkboxes. Documents that the user checks are linked to the public notice, and will be available for download by external users. Only documents with a public security classification and a Final status are available for selection.
Save	Clicking the Save button saves the event.

Select the desired Event Type. Note: Event types may vary depending on configuration.
Enter a Start Date and End Date as applicable.
Indicate the specific linked Permit (this only appears if the event type is Public Notice - Draft Permit) or Compliance Action (this only appears if the event type is Public Notice - Pending Compliance).
Select the Coverage.
If the coverage selected is Multi-County, select the applicable counties.
Enter comments in the Comments field. Comments appear on the public site as the Public Notice Description.
Documents may be added for inclusion in the public notice (see below).

Include Documents in a Public Notice

Documents may be linked to the public notice at the time of creation. Linked documents are included in the public notice and made available for download by the public.

For a document to be available for linking to a public notice, it must have a Public security classification and a status of Final.

Prior to the creation of the public notice, users should verify the security classification and publishing status of any documents they wish to include.

To link a document:

Under the Linked Document section of the public notice event:
- Click the checkbox next to each document in the list you wish to include in the public notice.

Save the Public Notice

To save the public notice:

Click the Save button.
- Upon saving:
  - the event is added.
  - the public notice record is generated.
  - the New Event page closes, with the Events List tab displaying the newly added event.

Once created, the public notice appears on the public site, beginning on the Start Date through the End Date specified in the public notice event.

Editing a Public Notice

Once a public notice is in effect, it may not be edited unless the user has been given the "Public Notice End Date Manager" role.

Edit Restrictions if Public Notice is In Effect

Normally, a Public Notice should not be edited once it is in effect. However, users with the Manage Public Notice permission may edit the notice to remove visibility of the Public Notice by adding an end date and providing comments in order to it as an entry error. Users with Manage Public Notice may also delete a Public Notice provided that it does not have any public comments recorded against it.

Reference Number

A reference number may be added to a public notice after it is created.

Note: The Reference Number field is not available to be added until the public notice record has been created but is not in effect yet.

The reference number is displayed on the Public Notice Search and Public Notice Details pages.

Viewing the 'Published' Public Notice

Once a public notice has been saved, internal users may view the published details as the public sees them (or would see them, beginning at the start date) from the public notice site.

To view the published public notice:

Navigate to the desired submission and corresponding Events tab for the related submission.
Find the public notice event on the list.
Click the Public URL button.
The Public Notice Detail page is displayed, showing three tabs:
- Details for the public notice
- Documents available for download
- Add Comment tab

Adding Comments to a Public Notice

Both internal and external users may enter comments for a public notice. This capability is useful for internal users when a user has submitted comments via a letter or email.

To add comments to a public notice:

Navigate to the Public Notice Detail page to view the public notice, as described above.
Click the Add Comment tab. The entry page appears.

Enter the name and contact information about the commenter in the relevant fields.
Select the commenter's desired notification method.
- Note: This is informational only. There is not currently an automated notification for public notice decisions. The capture of this information (if configured) is to provide the processor information on notifications.
If the Comments field is too limiting, users may attach one or more documents to supplement the comments. This should be done prior to clicking the Submit button. See Attaching Documents below.
Click the Submit button.

Attaching Documents

To attach a document to the public notice:

Drag and drop method:

Navigate to the folder containing the file(s) you wish to upload.
Drag the file with the mouse (holding down on the selection button) into the attachment area, and release the mouse button.

Select file method:

Click the Choose Files button. A file selection dialog box opens.
Navigate to the folder containing the file(s) you wish to upload.
Click the file you wish to upload (or click multiple files while holding down the CTRL key on the keyboard).
Click Open.

After selecting files, they appear listed below the upload controls under the "Files to Upload."

A Description field is available to provide an explanation of what each file contains.
If an incorrect file was selected, it may be deleted from the list by clicking on the corresponding delete icon on the right side of the list.
When the file list is complete, click the Submit button to complete the comment submission.

External User Experience

When a public notice event has been created, it is made available for searching and commenting, beginning at the Start Date of the event and ending after the End Date of the event.

Please see /wiki/spaces/WindsorSupport/pages/566461185 for information related to the public site.

Viewing Comments and Documents Submitted by the Public

As the public submits comments on public notices, the comments are available for authorized staff to review.

To view submitted public notice comments:

Navigate to the desired submission and the corresponding Events tab for the related submission.
Find the public notice event in the list.
Click the Open button. The Public Notice Detail page is displayed.
Click the Responses button. A list of all responses submitted is displayed.
Click the Open button next to the response you wish to view.
A slide panel displays the details of the comments, including any document attachments.

Downloading Comments and Attachments

Download an individual document attachment

To download an individual document attachment:

Click the Open button next to a response you wish to view.
Click the <Document File Name> button listed in the attachment label.

The document will be downloaded to your computer.

Download a list of all comments and attachments

To download all comments and attachments:

To download comments only:
- Click the Download Comments button.
  - A Word document containing a list of all comments will be downloaded to your computer.
To download comments and attachments:
- Check the box next to Include Attachments.
- Click the Download Comments button.
  - A .zip file containing all files attached to public notice comments is downloaded to your computer. The archive also includes a Word document containing a list of all comments. Note that a PDF version of every file is included for every uploaded file that is in a PDF format (e.g. jpg or docx).

Windsor Support

Public Notice Events - Internal Administration