During the Nov. 13 Mount Vernon City Council meeting, council members discussed placing legislation on third reading that would eliminate legal advertisements from the Mount Vernon News.
Publishing legal advertisements in a newspaper was previously mandatory for all municipalities in Ohio until a recent state law allowed government units to bypass newspapers and publish legal notices on websites.
This move is expected to result in a significant financial setback for the Mount Vernon News.
Council members shared their perspectives on the matter.
Amber Keener expressed support for print options, citing the importance of providing information through multiple channels.
“My opinion on council is that we should also consider something that is in print because not everyone does the internet,” Kenner said. “I think that that is our duty to ensure that we provide as many options for informing the citizens as we can. And I think that print is still important. Whether we do that in conjunction with something online, with Knox Pages, I think we should still keep that open.”
Council member Mike Hillier advocated against spending money with Mount Vernon News, but advocated for keeping options open.
“I question the spending the money any longer with Mount Vernon News. But I don't want to exclude the possibilities of what's coming with Knox Pages. Knox News or any other publication. I don't want to put ourselves out of that business,” he said.
Others noted the inconvenience of publishing the public notices in print.
Bruce Hawkins, President of Mount Vernon City Council, said during the discussion expressed concerns about the constraints imposed by the Mount Vernon News’ turnaround time for publishing since the publication became once a week.
“That restricts our time frame when we want to publish something and if we had to do a public notice, we have to do a bidding, we have to do whatever. That’s hamstringing this council and this administration as far as timeframe. So that's a concern,” he said.
Jay Aldridge, CEO of online news publisher Knox Pages, said he would create an online portal for local units of government to use if he had a contract with the City of Mount Vernon and other municipalities.
“I want to be very clear, I don't have that product built yet because I don't want to build it until I know that there's a possibility that it's going to be used by any of our customers,” he said. “And I'm in this conversation with every city and county that we currently serve in various levels.”
He also emphasized the importance of considering the spirit of public notice laws, which aim to ensure an informed public and transparency in government activities.
