Roswell’s legal ads ain’t legal

The legal organ of Roswell, which has the contract to publish all of the city's paid legal notices, changed the way and the day it delivers its papers and rendered the legal ads void, according to the city attorney.

The Roswell Beacon, as the carrier of the legal notices, then substantially altered its delivery method and, more importantly, became a "Sunday newspaper."

This was a necessary change to the business model of his paper, said publisher John Frederick, but unfortunately he overlooked a little-known Georgia law which says legal notices posted on a Sunday do not satisfy the law.

"Sunday is a religious holiday and the law does not recognize legal notices published that day," said Roswell City Attorney David Davidson.

The city has had to go back and reschedule and re-advertise at least one public meeting to stay square with state law. At the Oct. 20 City Council meeting, the council decided after a long debate to allow the Beacon to continue to publish the legals on Sunday, but to keep the notices "legal" it would also print those notices in the Roswell Neighbor, a Thursday paper, as well.

The Beacon has until the end of the month to come back into compliance, i.e., forgo its decision to be a Sunday newspaper, or give up the city's legal notices. The contract is up for rebid at the end of the year.

Councilman Jerry Orlans was the only councilman to vote against the measure (Councilman Kent Igleheart was absent). He called the idea of paying double to run the legal ads "ridiculous."

"It is not the best use of taxpayers' money to pay double for ads when one newspaper is out of compliance," Orlans said. "I can't see paying twice."

Orlans' motion to drop the Beacon and use another paper for the remainder of the year died for lack of a second. Davidson said the city's contract called for The Beacon to mail all copies to city residents. Thus the city could verify circulation through postal receipts. As a Thursday newspaper, the city could squeeze in ads that came as late as Monday.

Publisher John Frederick notified the city's purchasing agent Richard Brownlee that the paper was being revamped to be a Sunday paper and thrown by carriers.

Once this came to the attention of City Attorney David Davidson, he sent Frederick a notice of termination of the city's contract. This was in the first week of October. It was only after further research that Davidson came across the point of law that legal notices on Sunday were void.

"Under the law, it is the same as if they were never published," said Davidson.
- www.northfulton.com

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