City of Kirkland should do better job informing public | Letter

Published 11:00 am Wednesday, June 19, 2013

I wanted to comment in support of the idea that the city of Kirkland post all legal notices in the Kirkland Reporter, but also clarify that it would still be essential for notices to be published in a daily print newspaper and the Seattle Times fits that bill.

While the editor for the Reporter states “… publishing notices is not so immediate that it would require a daily newspaper,” that is simply incorrect. If a citizen sees something that they need to act upon, they generally need every day possible to research, assemble their facts and contact their council members.

You further stated that “according to the city’s Ordinance No. 4082, which designates the Times as the city’s official newspaper, all notices should be published ‘not less than five days prior to the hearing.’” You state that you can accommodate that. But how so? The hearings are generally on Tuesdays and your paper comes out in print Friday, correct? Through Saturday would be 24 hours, through Tuesday would be four days. Sometimes hearings might be on a day other than Tuesday.

So what should be done? Running an ad is a very inexpensive means of alerting the public. Often, alerting the public saves costly controversy because there is greater transparency.

The city should continue to run notices in the Times, but should also run notices in the Reporter. I think it would be a good deal for the Reporter to offer a special price as there would be greater readership as a result of this role. Furthermore, inquiry has often been made to the Kirkland Patch and Kirkland Views. They don’t always receive notices. It seems that they would willingly include city notices in their blogs.

We have had some mighty controversies in Kirkland and most have had neighbors crying foul because they were never informed. The city needs to step up and do a better job ensuring a democratic government. Reaching out and providing notice through several channels would go a long way to restoring faith in our city government.

Karen Levenson, Kirkland