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Method is questionable

If you don't care to read any more comment about legal publications or if you think we are suffering from "sour grapes," stop here.

If you care that Marion County Commissioners may be involved in questionable activity, keep reading.

While most people have forgotten — if they ever cared — about the hoopla surrounding the county commission's decision to publish legals in the Free Press Extra, we've been researching the matter, gathering facts, and talking to attorneys.

State statute requires legal publications to be published in a newspaper of "general PAID circulation."

It appears the commission may have erred in naming the FPE the official newspaper for the county. The FPE's "general PAID circulation" numbers about 150.

When commissioners balked at those low circulation numbers, publisher Joel Klaassen threw in circulation figures from the Free Press, a FREE shopper with absolutely no "general PAID circulation."

On the other hand, the Marion County Record's "general PAID circulation" is about 2,800. County legal publications also were published in the Hillsboro Star-Journal and Peabody Gazette-Bulletin, at no charge to the county. These two publications have "general PAID circulation" totaling 3,000; all three have 5,800.

This is where the "questionable" part of the equation comes in: Is the county willingly publishing legals in a newspaper that does not meet the letter of the law and fulfill the requirements of a "general PAID circulation" newspaper?

It's not a dollars-and-cents issue. It's a more urgent matter of whether the county is complying with state laws.

Commissioners have an ethical duty to be accountable in all public matters involving county government. In other words, whether it be open records, open meetings, or legal publications, government entities cannot ignore the law.

— DONNA BERNHARDT

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