IOW cuts paper out of advertising
Published 9:51 am Wednesday, October 29, 2014
FRANKLIN
As a reported way to save money, Isle of Wight County ceased advertising legal notices in both The Tidewater News and The Smithfield Times effective this past summer. The notices serve, for example, to inform people when different departments of county government will have public meetings.
Instead, since July the notices have been published in The Daily Press, which is based in Newport News.
Since July, there have been eight public hearings:
- Three on July 17 — including one to amend County code to allow semi-annual billing of tangible personal property;
- Four on Aug. 21 — including one related to amending erroneous tax refund procedures; and
- One on Sept. 18 — “to create standards for brewery, distillery, cidery and related facilities.”
There were none at the Oct. 16 meeting.
Speaking this week with three members of the IOW Board of Supervisors, they pointed to County Attorney Mark Popovich for making the decision.
“We’re discussing this with Mr. Popovich,” said Rex Alphin of the Carrsville District. “I was made aware of that today (Monday), and I think the Board is going to look into that. I’m not sure we’ll address it before November, but for sure at that meeting.
“We would need to do what needs to be done so that all citizens in the county can be informed the best way possible.”
Delores “Dee Dee” Darden of the Windsor District, said she supports the action.
“I think that was just a standpoint to centralize and save money. We weren’t favoring one newspaper over another,” she said. “It probably was just discussed, but I don’t think we really voted on it. I respect his decision.”
However, Al Casteen of the Smithfield District is not pleased to learn about it.
“A constituent brought it to my attention on Oct. 22, and I said I’m not aware of it. I called Mr. [John] Edwards [of The Smithfield Times] and he said he’d look into it. He got back to me on Thursday.
“I called Mr. Popovich and I told him that wasn’t the board’s practice. Without telling anyone he changed course, and I asked him to correct that. I made it very clear that I wanted it changed.”
Casteen apologized for the attorney’s action.
“It calls into question just why the devil he took it,” he said, and added, “The Board had said sometime ago that we would advertise in The Smithfield Times, The Tidewater News and The Daily Press.
“The realities are that in the county The Times has the biggest circulation,” Casteen said. “I think you (Tidewater News) are in the southern part, and The Daily Press only really goes along the Route 17 corridor.”
The supervisor said he thinks that Popovich made the decision on July 1, which is the beginning of the County’s fiscal year.
“I just don’t understand,” Casteen said. “Obviously I’m disappointed. Maybe he got carried away with the budget issue.”
The Tidewater News was not able to contact Popovich for comment.
Another person who’s been speaking to him has been H. Woodrow Crook, an attorney based in Smithfield.
“I have talked with the County Attorney, and suggested they go back and review their minutes from their past. I believe action has been taken in the past by a motion made and they need to find it,” he said.
“It seems to me that the Board of Supervisors took some action — maybe not as a formal resolution — but to give the county administration guidance. You have different agencies doing advertising: the County administrator, planning and zoning for zoning issues and that sort of thing, and then the school board,” Crook said. “I suggested they do a search to see if the minutes don’t reflect that. I think that he’s doing that now.”
Phil Bradshaw, an IOW supervisor from 1993 to 2010, said he doesn’t remember any formal action taken on how to advertise legal notices. But he does recall during discussion his “being very adamant” to advertise in local papers, such as The Tidewater News, which covers the southern end of Isle of Wight.
“No one paper covers all the county,” Bradshaw added.
The issue came up again in 2010 about limiting advertising legal notices, but “that was just some talk among the supervisors and staff. There no vote or anything.
He also said there was a policy passed in the late 1990s or early 2000’s to do chiefly do business with local businesses.
“When I was on board, we would meet two times a month, one just for public hearings,” Bradshaw said.