Charter Review: Town Spent $46,000 Last Year in Print Newspaper Public Notices

The town spent about $46,000 last fiscal year advertising public notices in local print newspapers—a practice that officials call expensive for taxpayers and which may change as a soon-to-be-appointed commission reviews New Canaan’s major governing document. The Town Council has sketched a timeline whereby a Charter Revision Commission will be appointed, with an eye on recommending updates to the Town Charter that would appear—following multiple public hearings and reports, as required by state law—on the ballot for the November 2016 general elections. Among changes to consider—as recommend by a committee of the Town Council five years ago, following interviews with the heads of town departments and municipal boards and commissions—is this (see pages 185-188 of this council meeting’s public packet): “Some commissions are bound by [state] statutes which require the entire content to be published. Are there ways to notice meetings in a more cost-effective way (e.g. website, referral to website in public notice)?”

Asked about the public noticing issue in particular, Town Councilman Penny Young—who had served on the 2010 committee—said “the idea was posed for several reasons.”

“One is the cost involved in taking an ad out, in printing it in the newspaper. And secondly, the development of other media modes that had not existed 10 years ago as they do now.