Nov 11, 2014 By David Singer 2 min read

More than 70 percent of Mt. Lebanon voters cast their ballot on Nov. 4 to allow legal notices previously required to be published in newspapers to be publicized in other ways, such as a physical posting inside the municipal building or through the government’s own electronic media, including Facebook or a website. The overwhelming majority of voters said “yes” to the change, allowing Mt. Lebanon government announcements involving debt, ordinances, capital program projects, petitions and comprehensive plan amendments to be posted in their own media and still meet public notice requirements.

But the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association wrote in an Aug. 8 letter discouraging any potential vote that the change violates state law.

“This policy is inconsistent with both the Home Rule Charter and the Newspaper Advertising Act, which governs public notice advertising statewide,” said PNA attorney Melissa Melewsky, “because the Home Rule Charter… prohibits municipalities from exercising powers contrary to, or in limitation or enlargement of, powers granted by statutes which are applicable in every part of the Commonwealth.”

“Publishing in their own electronic distribution or in the municipal building does not meet the legal requirements. It has no legal effect. It has to appear in a paper in general circulation per the Newspaper Advertising Act,” she said.

Melewsky also said the Newspaper Advertising Act is the statute that supersedes the change to home rule charter.

The Almanac does not qualify as a paper of general circulation due to its free weekly publication status. A commission convened by Mt. Lebanon commissioners found that the municipal government pays on average $18,000 a year to post legal ads in the Post-Gazette.

“This allows us to do things more efficiently and get notices out to the public immediately,” Mt. Lebanon manager Steve Feller said.

“This change creates a liability for the township,” Melewsky said, “and any changes can be made. It’s not posted in an independent third party fact checking the notices, or keeping them as they were originally posted… as for accessibility, 83 percent of adults are reached by a newspaper, whereas most government websites don’t have enough traffic to be measured in large terms,” she said.

The commission amended the requirement for public notice by allowing an addition to the “public notice” section of its charter to define publication as a physical posting in a conspicuous location in the municipal building, and “other methods,” which could be websites or social media.