Municipal League member, state legislator share different views on public notices

The Missouri Municipal League recently passed a resolution at its annual conference in support of changes to state law to allow public notices of municipalities to be posted on city government Web sites.

The current state law requires municipalities to post all public notices in local newspapers that run on a weekly or daily basis.

Missouri Municipal League member and City of Kennett Attorney, Terry McVey, noted that the resolution shows the league's support of the action.

"This is mainly to allow cities to give certain notices in a cheaper method," McVey said.

He added that the cities would not be required to post the notices on a Web site, but would have the option to do so.

"I was in support of it especially in today's environment with so many cities strapped financially," McVey said. "Just anything to be more cost efficient."

McVey noted that the resolution was proposed at the business meeting by the St. Louis, Mo., Municipal League.

"The urban areas are the ones really pushing this change, because of the high cost of publication in their areas," McVey said.

He added that to his knowledge no one voted against the resolution.

The resolution just shows the Missouri Municipal League's support of the change to state law, this does not change the law.

In order for the law to be changed, it would have to be approved by State Legislators, according to McVey.

State Representative Terry Swinger, D--Caruthersville, noted that he had seen several attempts at this proposal through the county governments.

Swinger said in response to the resolution, "We have several citizens without computers."

He added that the cost of computer access was more expensive that the cost of a newspaper subscription.

"Not everybody has a computer and I believe that the notices should be in newspapers," Swinger said. "Along with those without computers, some people, that are very effective on computers, still enjoy reading this kind of information in a newspaper."