HOW WE SEE IT: Lawsuit Troubling For Elkins

— The little city of Elkins has landed in a potentially big mess.

A lawsuit filed in December alleges that the city has failed to properly notify the public of its new ordinances. State law requires that all ordinances - including those that impose any kind of fine or penalty - must either be published in the local newspaper or, if there is no newspaper published in town, posted in five of the most publicplaces in town.

A recent series of stories in Elkins’ hometown newspaper, the White River Valley News, called into serious doubt whether the city has followed this law at all. The newspaper stated in a story two weeks ago that the city has never published the majority ofits ordinances, and that former mayor Jack Ladyman said the city did not begin posting ordinances until 2005.

A class-action lawsuit, filed in December by several city residents, seeks a refund of all revenue generated as a result of the allegedly non-posted ordinances.

It’s unclear at this point how much money is at stake, but it could be a massive amount. One can see how this lawsuit might cripple city services.

The city isn’t about to go down without a fight, though. According to the White River Valley News, Elkins is being represented by Michael Mosley of the Arkansas Municipal League, who has put forth some interesting arguments. One defense is that the White River Valley News is not published in town, so the city does not have to publish notices in that paper.

(Though distributed in Elkins, the paper is published in Springdale.)

At the same time, the city is arguing that it was denied the opportunity to publish legal ads in the White River Valley News - a shaky defense, at best.

A little trade secret here: Virtually all newspapers depend on ad revenue to stay in business.

Newspapers that routinely reject ads do not last long. Nobody who was ever in charge of the White River Valley News can recall turning down a legal ad from the city. (Northwest Arkansas Newspapers owned the White River Valley News before selling it in August.)

It will be interesting to see how this lawsuit plays out, because pretty much every Elkins resident will be affected, in one way or another, by the outcome.

In any case, the lawsuit and the newspaper’s reporting should serve as reminders that all cities and counties, no matter how small, are obligated to pay attention to and follow the laws.

More important, there’s a reason why public notice laws exist. No, it’s not to guarantee a newspaper a source of revenue. It is because a public notice is exactly that - notice to the public.

We can’t all go to city hall and watch every law get enacted and every tax get levied. That’s why we elect city councils in the first place. Public notice is informing the public, in detail, what their government has done.

Attention to detail matters. We learned in school that a simple misplacement of a decimal point can be extremely costly. The same goes for government;

misinterpretation or ignorance of the laws of the land can lead to disastrous consequences.

The public-posting law provides transparency and accountability in local government. If the law has been ignored in Elkins, then unfortunately, the city needs to pay a price.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 02/24/2011

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