Some of the most important things you can read in a newspaper are not just reporters’ articles on the news of the day but legal notices about local governing bodies’ upcoming meetings and other actions. Those “legals,” as the ads are called, help prevent government from holding meetings or taking actions that few local residents know about. That makes legal ads vital to maintaining government transparency and to keeping the public aware of the activities — good or bad — of elected officials.
So it is troubling that Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield has persuaded state Rep. Vince Dean, R-East Ridge, and state Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, to introduce a bill that would let the city and Hamilton County pull legals out of the Times Free Press and simply run them on government websites — where they are likely to be seen by far fewer people than the number who read them in the newspaper.
Dean and Watson have usually shown wisdom and excellent judgment during their time in the General Assembly, and the Free Press has been enthusiastic in endorsing them. We continue to believe they are effective and soundly conservative lawmakers.
But we must respectfully and heartily disagree with them on this matter, because the public’s right to know is on the line.
The mayor’s office says a law pulling the ads out of the paper is needed to save $75,000 that the city spends annually to run the ads.