Splash outbids Herald for publishing contract

The 2010 budget wasn’t the only topic of discussion at the Liberty Lake City Council meeting this week. Representatives from two competing newspapers spoke about why their bid to be Liberty Lake’s official newspaper for legal notices should be accepted, leading to some debate.

The Liberty Lake Splash has held the contract for the past several years. Its bid included a rise in price from 70 cents per line to 90 cents per line. The Spokane Valley News Herald submitted a bid of 85 cents per line, with each additional run of the same ad at 75 cents per line. City staff originally recommended granting a contract to the Valley Herald as the apparent low bidder.

During the meeting Splash publisher Josh Johnson said the reason the rate was higher was that the paper has been reformatted and each line is now longer. “It’s a column width issue,” he said. “I believe we actually do have the lowest bid if you do an apples to apples comparison.”

The last time the city last awarded the official notices contract to the Valley Herald in 2006 local residents complained because many do not receive the Valley Herald, Johnson said. “They just don’t saturate Liberty Lake like we do,” he said. In the end, the city ended up paying double in order to publish some notices in both newspapers.

Valley News Herald news editor Craig Howard pointed out his newspaper’s extensive experience at publishing legal notices for Spokane County and the city of Spokane Valley. “I would appreciate if we got due consideration,” he said.

His pleas apparently fell on deaf ears. Administrative services manager Jessica Platt said city staff was recommending the council approve a contract with the Splash based on Johnson’s arguments of line width difference. “Taking that into consideration, they are the lowest bidder,” she said.

Councilman Neal Olander made the motion to give the award to the Splash, which received a unanimous “yes” vote. “I was persuaded by their argument,” he said.

In other business

Police Chief Brian Asmus spoke to the council about changes being made to the department in the wake of the police officer murders in Lakewood, Wash. His officers are on heightened alert and are more wary when people approach them, he said. “We feel law enforcement is being targeted,” he said.

Officers have computers in their patrol cars that allow them to complete reports while in the car. “Great technology, but we’re not going to be doing that anymore,” he said. Officers may only do paperwork in their cars if there is a second officer present to keep watch, he said.

The council also observed a moment of silence at the beginning of the meeting in honor of the Lakewood officers.