Chanute city commissioners on Tuesday approved an ordinance that will eliminate certain legal publications from The Chanute Tribune, saving the city $1,500 a month or $18,000 a year.
The savings from this change equates to 0.02% of the city’s $63 million published budget. The $18,000 also represents about 18% of the city commissioners’ $101,500 budget for 2025. The commission’s budget increased by $8,000 but each of the five commissioners will still be paid $6,000 a year.
The city of Chanute publishes a number of legal notices each year in the Tribune, including resolutions for nuisance violations and ordinances that may relate to changes in city laws. The city also publishes its budget in advance of a public hearing and bid notices in the newspaper.
Commissioners heard that the nuisance violation resolutions would instead be published on the city’s website for seven days. These notices are served in person to the violator or by restricted mail. If the location of the person is not known, posting the resolution on the city’s website would be sufficient notice under the amendment. These notices are normally printed under legals in the Tribune.
City Attorney David Brake told commissioners that two other cities were doing something similar, McPherson and Wichita. City Manager Todd Newman said Chanute city staff have received some feedback that the nuisance violators didn’t see the notices published in the newspaper.
See LEGALS, Page 12.
Commissioner Kevin Berthot said if the violator didn’t see the notice in the paper they wouldn’t see it on the website either. Newman said the city tried to advertise the notices twice for each cycle last year but reduced that to one publication this year.
Berthot said the Tribune is only printed twice a week now, noting the national trend of the newspaper industry.
“It’s slowly going away,” Berthot said. Newman said commissioners talked about this last year and wanted to wait to see what happened.
Brake said the city would continue to publish ordinances because they impact more than just the property owner like the resolutions related to nuisance violations.
“So I didn’t do the charter ordinance yet without direction from the commission on the ordinances,” Brake said, recommending commissioners study the matter further.
“I like it,” Commissioner Tim Fairchild said of eliminating legal notices for nuisance violations.
Commissioners voted 5-0 to approve the ordinance making the publication change.
The ordinance goes into effect upon publication in the Tribune on Tuesday.
About 20 other cities in Kansas have taken a similar action, according to Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association.
“Chanute’s decision to move certain legal notices to their website is disappointing. Third-party publication is an important tool for government transparency. Trusting a city to publish notices on its own website is a ‘fox watching the henhouse’ situation. The amount they are saving amounts to .02% of their 2025 budget,” Bradbury said in an email.
“City websites have much less traffic than newspaper websites. Public notices are to notify the public. According to online website reports, the city of Chanute’s website has 4,760 organic visitors per month compared to the Chanute Tribune’s website, which has 9,958 organic visitors per month. This is in addition to their print readership. The Chanute Tribune also, at no cost to the city, puts public notices on their own website and the stateside public notice website at kansaspublicnotices.com, which is free to the public.”
Max Kautsch is a Lawrence attorney whose practice focuses on First Amendment rights and open government law. He’s also the legal hotline attorney for KPA.
“So the issue is not necessarily whether the notice should be published in the paper; the question is whether the city can actually meet its burden under state law if it chooses to notify only by publishing on its website,” Kautsch said in an email. “Is such notice comparable to the methods in the statute, as newspaper publication proved to be? If not, the solution is to return to publishing such notices in the paper.”
In other matters, the commission: — Heard from Chamber of Commerce Director Amy Jensen about new banners for downtown during the Christmas season.
— Heard from Newman that the second bond issue for the improvements of the water treatment plant closed on Oct. 30. The first bond issue went toward the mobilization for the work and expenses, he said. The city was to make a payment of $5 million to Crossland Construction by the end of the week. By late 2025, the city will have to approve a third bond issue, this one about $7 million, to finish the project.
