Apex Passes Resolution In Support Of School Board
NBC17
May. 4, 2010 11:14 pm
APEX, N.C. - Apex City Council members unanimously passed a resolution supporting the Wake County School Board's Community Schools program.
The mayor said the council was very vocal in the past against the county's busing policy.
Council members said they support diversity in schools but believe the focus of the board should be on something else.
"We are encouraging, educational emphasis on minority and economically disadvantaged students, which we've seen low graduation rates on other things that had not been successful," Mayor Keith Weatherly said. "We feel that that's been the most important emphasis of the previous board of education; to have an arbitrary, economic and racial mix in all of our schools when education should be the primary focus."
Other communities, including Raleigh, have passed resolutions denouncing the School Board's actions.
Paul Stam, representative from Apex, NC, is proposing to exempt Wake County and other communities from a requirement to advertise government meetings in newspapers. The plan would limit access to information about meetings to those with internet access and not allow notices to be accessible to many that rely on newspapers. His first attempt to exempt all government organizations from required advertising met significant opposition, so his latest effort aims to push through a new plan to exempt Wake and Mecklenburg counties.RALEIGH - A bill that would save local governments some money has drawn opposition from the state's newspaper publishers, who say it would limit public access to information about government meetings.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Paul Stam, an Apex Republican, would give certain cities, towns and counties the ability to stop paying for newspaper advertisements to announce public hearings. Currently, all but a few municipalities in North Carolina are required to pay for the ads, which are in classified sections.
A bill to exempt all local governments met with resistance, so Stam is preparing to introduce a version this week that would apply to towns in Wake and Mecklenburg counties as well as other large cities and counties in the state.
Stam said the bill would give governments a break on an expense that is unnecessary since many towns, cities and counties can post the notices on their own Web sites.
Publishers and editors at The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer and other newspapers have lobbied against the bill, arguing that many people who read legal ads don't necessarily have Internet access.
“It's a little bit uncomfortable to be putting the message in the hands of the government who maybe stands to lose the most if enough people turn out in opposition to whatever the meeting's going to be about,” said John Bussian, a lobbyist for the N.C. Press Association.
The bill would require local governments wanting to make the switch to hold a public hearing and make a finding that there is sufficient Internet access.
Ad revenue declining
The bill comes at a time when advertising revenue for newspapers has been in sharp decline. N&O Publisher Orage Quarles III said legal ads represent a small percentage of the company's revenues. Quarles said newspapers are in the business of attracting people to their print paper and Web sites, and a city or county couldn't match the kind of traffic newspapers get.
Rick Thames, editor of The Charlotte Observer and president of the press association, said public notices should appear in a place where people are likely to run across them. The idea is similar to tacking up a sign up a public square.
“You can have an obscure Web site with little to no traffic, and you can post a notice there,” Thames said. “That doesn't mean the public is going to see it.”
Thames also said that allowing governments to stop advertisements would give officials leverage over news coverage.
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