By Press Times Staff
DE PERE – On June 2, the De Pere Common Council voted not to use The Press Times as its official newspaper in a move projected to cost city residents close to an additional $6,000 a year.
The council unanimously voted to use the Green Bay Press Gazette as the official newspaper after the topic was tabled at the May 19 council meeting.
The official paper is responsible for publishing legal notices, and such notices are treated similar to paid advertisements, but with strict regulation under state law.
The council discussed this session in closed session, meaning the public and news media were unable to to hear the conversation.
Wisconsin Statute 19.85 allows governing bodies the right to go into closed session for specific exempt purposes, provided the presiding officer announces the specific matter to be discussed and the reason for the exemption.
The agenda for the meeting shows the reason for the closed session as “the purpose of conferring with legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering oral or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved.”
The Press Times serves as the official newspaper for the villages of Ashwaubenon, Howard, Suamico, Hobart and the school districts of Ashwaubenon, De Pere, West De Pere and Howard-Suamico.
It also publishes some legal notices for the Green Bay school district, but is not formally named the official paper.
At no point during the awarding of the bid as the official newspaper for any other municipalities has the discussion involved going into closed session.
Savings were on the table
According to documents from the city, The Press Times’ bid was less than half of what the Press Gazette proposed.
Judging by what De Pere paid to The Press Gazette throughout 2019, $11,400, the move to The Press Times would have cost half as much.
However, the council opted to spend more taxpayer dollars due to a technicality during the bid process.
The official resolution mailed from the City of De Pere to The Press Times states the council determined the bid from The Press Times was not responsive to the bid invitation published by the city clerk because the bid did not include a separate quote for council proceedings.
Mike Hollihan, general manager of The Press Times, said the city never requested a separate bid for council proceedings from The Press Times, and that state law describes council proceedings as legal notices and therefore covered by The Press Times’ bid.
Hollihan informed De Pere Clerk Carey Danen of these facts May 27, prior to the contract award.
De Pere City Administrator Larry Delo told Hollihan in an email dated April 2, “I do not believe staff would recommend and support moving to a weekly paper from a daily paper. The weekly vs daily timing creates a lot of issues for us and all departments have indicated a preference for the flexibility of a daily paper to meet notice and bid requirements.”
De Pere is not alone in its concern, as municipalities served by The Press Times also expressed similar thoughts.
However, those municipalities split legal notices between the weekly Press Times and the daily Press Gazette, with more immediate notices going to the daily, and the longer, more expensive notices going to The Press Times, which saves the municipalities taxpayer dollars because of the lower rate.
The Wood family, which owns Multi Media Channels, previously owned the De Pere Journal, a weekly paper which ran the city’s legal notices before being sold to Gannett and closed down in 2014.
Coverage gap
Because The Press Times started covering the City of De Pere in August 2018, nearly 60 articles have been written related to council news and elections.
For the same time period, the Press Gazette has published roughly 12 articles, one-third related to Legion Pool.
When given a request to amend the agenda for the June 16 meeting, more than 24 hours beforehand, De Pere Mayor James Boyd declined to allow The Press Times on the agenda.
Since public comments have been suspended for De Pere Common Council meetings, Press Times staff was only allowed the opportunity to write a letter Danen sent to all council members.
When asked why the council discussed the bids in closed session, Delo told The Press Times it was due to a recommendation from Judith Schmidt-Lehman, city attorney.
“The only comment I would have is that the city solicited bids following the state statute process and the city attorney, because they were competing bids, advised the council to go into closed session to receive legal advice on how to appropriately award the bid, and the council then took the action they did to award the bid,” Delo told The Press Times.
The Press Times also submitted an open records request for all minutes, related to any closed session discussion surrounding the Green Bay Press Gazette being named the official paper, but has not received those documents as of press deadline.