The City of Homer is seeking a change in how they must notify the public of city meetings and procedures.

The Homer City Council passed a resolution during their Aug. 12 regular meeting asking the Alaska Municipal League, a statewide nonpartisan organization that advocates for cities and boroughs across the state, to “take up the issue of municipal requirements as defined in Alaska Statutes 29.71.800 to include allowance for web-based public notice.”

Resolution 24-088 was presented to AML during the 2024 Summer Legislative Conference, which was held Aug. 13-15. Homer City Council member Shelly Erickson said the resolution was “widely accepted” at the conference.

“City Manager Melissa Jacobsen presented the need to change state statute for public notices and received a round of applause. Clearly this is an issue faced by all municipalities,” council member Donna Aderhold wrote in her report, an informational memorandum to the council dated Monday, Aug. 26, summarizing her attendance of the conference.

Aderhold wrote that AML will take the resolution and notes on the public noticing issue back to Juneau and will work with the AML Board of Directors on crafting resolutions and revised priorities for the upcoming legislative session. Draft priority statements and resolutions should be available in the early fall, and members will vote on them during the AML business meeting in December.

Title 29 of the Alaska Statutes addresses municipal governments and mandates many of the procedures that apply to municipalities — including those procedures, such as public meetings, public hearings, elections, land sales and more, that require publishing of public notices.

Paragraph 18 in AS 29.71.800 defines “publishing” as “appearing at least once in a newspaper of general circulation distributed in the municipality or, if there is no newspaper of general circulation distributed in the municipality, posting in three public places for at least five days.”

However, with the continued shift by organizations and newspapers toward online platforms and posting, as well as the ongoing reduction of physical newspaper publication, public noticing by this definition has begun to pose a problem for some municipalities in the Kenai Peninsula Borough.

Resolution 24-088, sponsored by Erickson and council member Jason Davis, was brought before the council after several instances this year where notices for public hearings were failed to be published in a timely manner in the Homer News and, as a result, those public hearings were either postponed or the council could take no action on ordinances being heard.

“The past few months, we have had issues with the noticing of issues on our agenda, causing us to postpone acting on them (and) making government not as efficient, especially in matters of imminent importance,” Erickson wrote in an Aug. 7 memorandum.

Jacobsen said that she recalled at least three instances “in the last few months” where public notices submitted by the city for publication were not printed.

“It seems they get missed or somebody didn’t see it, or someone was out sick or out of the office and there wasn’t anyone else to take over,” she said, noting that the most recent instance was due to “oversight.”

Erickson spoke on the negative effects that failure to publish public notices has on the city’s ability to govern.

“The frustration has been growing for quite a while at the table, because it means we have to postpone our business,” she said. “We can’t do it in a timely fashion. If we have to do a special meeting, it’s costing all of us lots of extra time and it costs the city money because it’s a lot more work.”

At the same time, Erickson noted, the request for AML to take up the issue of public noticing requirements is a result of the larger publication trends.

“The whole premise is looking at, ‘This is how our world has changed, what can we do to prepare so we are ready to take care of these things?’ We have so many things that are moving at a faster pace now,” she said. “The state of Alaska needs to up their game and change the law to be caught up with what is actually happening with the notices and how the communities are caught not being able to do business because of that law of having to have it in a published newspaper.”

The resolution states that both online newspaper publication and public notices being published on municipalities’ websites are “a format that is becoming a common way the public accesses their information.”

“It would be of great service to all Alaska municipalities for section 29.71.800 (18) “published” be amended to include allowance for online public notice to achieve public notice requirements,” the resolution reads.

Because Homer is not a home rule city, or a municipality that has adopted a home rule charter and has all legislative powers not prohibited by law or charter, the city is subject to the requirements outlined in Alaska Statutes Title 29. By requesting that AML take up the issue on their behalf, the city hopes that the statute can be amended so that the council can later “move forward in getting (an) ordinance in place” to allow them to “notice effectively with the tools that are being used today and in the future,” Erickson wrote the memo.

Several municipalities within the Kenai Peninsula Borough have already enacted alternatives to publishing notices in a newspaper “of general circulation.”

Seward, no longer having a local newspaper since the Seward Journal closed down in November 2023, has adapted by posting notices and creating greater accessibility on the Seward city website and city council page. According to the Seward city clerk’s office, they have also implemented a new e-notification system powered by the city website where residents can subscribe and sign up for various topics, including council meetings, and receive e-newsletters. The city is also continuing to post public notices various locations including the post office, the harbormaster’s office, city hall and the library.

In May 2023, Soldotna, a home rule city, passed Resolution 2023-033 approving the Soldotna Public Engagement and Communication Policy, which “provides guidance regarding public engagement and communication regarding public meetings of official city business by public officials.”

The policy complies with all provisions of Title 29 regarding notice by newspaper publication but limits newspaper publications to “only those that are required by Soldotna Municipal Code and Alaska State Statute Title 29.” According to the Soldotna city clerk’s office, the city does still publish notices of election and special assessment districts in the Peninsula Clarion, but otherwise notices public meetings online and only in the newspaper when required by charter, code or state statutes or “when warranted.”

The policy’s passing came after an announcement from the Clarion on May 3, 2023, that the paper was moving from a daily printing schedule to being printed two days a week. The policy specifically notes that “the limited publication of the local newspaper has created difficulties with meeting publication deadlines and consistency” and limiting newspaper publications “will save the city significant expense.”

On July 3, Kenai City Clerk Shellie Saner described a resolution passed unanimously to remove the City of Kenai’s noticing requirements, following an announcement on June 22 that the Clarion was moving to a weekly publishing schedule beginning in July.

“As a home rule municipality, the state statutes requiring newspaper publication of public hearing notices do not apply to us. The only thing that does apply to us is the council policy that says we publish in a newspaper of general circulation,” she said. “So this would take that out.”

On Aug. 21, Saner told the Kenai City Council that the city clerk’s office has begun working with administration on a draft ordinance to correct sections of Kenai city code regarding newspaper advertising that “is not feasible with one publication,” and that ordinance should come before the council at their next meeting.

Saner also noted that the ordinance would be open-ended.

“Because of what we’re facing right now with the changes in media and how we’re reaching people, I would not recommend codification of the form of media we’re advertising. I would recommend that something like that be included in a policy that is not codified,” she told the council.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education announced Aug. 5 that “notices will no longer be posted in the Peninsula Clarion newspaper due to the most recent announcement of a new Peninsula Clarion print schedule and the timing of distribution.”

Board president Zen Kelly said during the meeting that the change in the Clarion’s print schedule “necessitated that we change the way that we notice our meetings.”

The board now notices their meetings online on the KPBSD website and Facebook page, and posts printed notices at the George A. Navarre Admin Building located at 144 North Binkley Street and the KPBSD district office located at 148 North Binkley Street in Soldotna.

To date, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly is still required to publish public notices in the newspaper. According to the assembly clerk’s office, however, there may be problems should the publication dates for the Clarion change again.

Find Resolution 24-088 and backup materials in full at www.cityofhomer-ak.gov/citycouncil/city-council-regular-meeting-318.