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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03.a. Publication of Legal NoticesSeAp- From: Alm, Kent [mailto:kalm(cbmeyersnave.com] Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 3:27 PM To: Elaine Boehme Cc: Roger Bailey Subject: Publication of Notices in the Newspaper Elaine; You have requested that I take a look at the issue of whether the District could legally publish all of its legal notices in the San Francisco Chronicle. If legally permissible, you further requested my thoughts on, whether the District should do so and what would be the approval process for the switch. As to the question of legality, I have found nothing that would clearly legally prohibit the switch. The language on publication can be found in a number of statutes with some variance of wording, but the basic concept is that the publication must be in a paper of general circulation within the service area. There are other requirements such as it must publish at least once or twice a week, but both the Chronicle and the Times meet all of those criteria. There are also special criteria for bond issuances and other special circumstances that don't generally apply. The obvious publication group of general circulation throughout our service area is the Times and it undoubtedly is the group of papers that most local public agencies in central Contra Costa use for notices. The Chronicle may meet the minimum criteria for notices, as it is available throughout the service area, but it is not the publication that is most directly concerned with local affairs and therefore is not the natural choice for finding local news (including public hearing notices and similar publications). From a process standpoint, if there is a desire to consider switching to the Chronicle, I believe it should be a Board level decision as it would be a break from many years of past practice and there could be differences of opinion from the Board Members. The Board would likely have the legal ability to switch, but the policy issues may well drive the decision. This is a very informal response to your question given without exhaustive review. If this suggestion is to be considered further, we may want to research any existing case law that might be instructive and make sure there are no Attorney General opinions on this or analogous issues. I have not undertaken that level of effort at this point. Kent Kent Alm Principal MEYERS NAVE 555 12th Street, Suite 1500 Oakland, California 94607