The 5th District Court affirmed last week that the Idaho Mountain Express qualifies as the official newspaper of record for the city of Bellevue.
Senior District Judge George D. Carey ruled Sept. 23 in favor of the Bellevue City Council's decision to change the city's official newspaper from the Wood River Journal to the Idaho Mountain Express, deciding that either newspaper could be the newspaper that publishes the city's legal notices.
A trial still may be scheduled to decide whether the City Council properly appointed the Idaho Mountain Express.
Lee Publishing Inc., a Delaware-based corporation that owns and operates the Wood River Journal in Hailey, had filed a lawsuit against the city contesting the council's June 2004 decision to change the city's official newspaper of record.
Asked whether Lee Publishing would pursue the remaining issue, Twin-falls based attorney Mick Hodges said, "I haven't had an opportunity to discuss this with my client."
Lee Publishing Inc. is a subsidiary of Lee Enterprises, a publicly traded company with headquarters in Davenport, Iowa. It is reportedly the country's fourth largest newspaper company. Lee owns 58 daily newspapers, including the Times News in Twin Falls, and 300 niche publications, including some weekly newspapers.
In the suit, Express Publishing, a locally owned and operated company that publishes the Idaho Mountain Express, was granted permission by the court to participate in the suit as an intervener.
"I think the city interpreted the section of the code properly. I think the decision bears that out," Bellevue City Attorney Rick Allington said.
At issue was whether the Idaho Mountain Express qualified as the newspaper of record to publish Bellevue's legal notices.
Idaho law requires city councils to designate by ordinance a newspaper to be the official newspaper of the city.
According to Idaho code, a city like Bellevue—in which no newspaper is published—can choose the nearest newspaper published, or the newspaper with the largest paid circulation published in the county.
The Bellevue City Council was presented a choice between the geographic proximity or the newspaper with the largest paid circulation.
Published in Hailey, the Wood River Journal is the newspaper closest to Bellevue.
The court affirmed the Idaho Mountain Express qualifies as the paper with the largest paid circulation.
According to a 2003 sworn statement filed with the U.S. Post Office, the Idaho Mountain Express listed 1,542 total paid and or requested circulation, and the Wood River Journal recorded circulation of 964.
Lee disputed the wording of the statute, arguing that the statute read that circulation is limited to circulation within Blaine County. Bellevue and the Express maintained the statute defined circulation as circulation both inside and outside Blaine County.
The court found no ambiguity in the statute. Affirmed by grammatical construction analysis, the court ruled in favor of the interpretation presented by the city and the Express.
The decision affirmed that the computation under the statute is the largest paid circulation using the total paid circulation number, which includes paid circulation both inside and outside Blaine County.
