Citing shifting trends in where people seek out and obtain information, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly approved an ordinance last week amending borough code to update public noticing requirements.
Sponsored by borough Mayor Peter Micciche, Ordinance 2025-27 seeks to “ensure that public funds are being used in a manner which maximizes public notice and awareness” and expands the methods or media by which public notices may be provided.
Previously, KPB code outlined that, unless a borough code provision or state law provided otherwise, public notices should be published on the borough’s webpage, published in a newspaper of general circulation, posted in a borough or service area administration building or other public facilities or private facilities that allow for public posting, or posted on an official borough social media account.
Borough code also defined a newspaper of general circulation as a publication that is published in newspaper format; is distributed at least once a week for at least 50 weeks each year; is not published primarily to distribute advertising and is not primarily intended for a particular professional or occupational group.
Now, according to the updated borough code, a newspaper of general circulation is defined as a publication in newspaper format that is distributed in print at least twice a week and has a print distribution within every incorporated city within the Kenai Peninsula Borough.
None of the newspapers currently in circulation within the borough qualify according to this new definition.
Borough code already contained provisions for satisfying public notice requirements under state law in the event that a newspaper of general circulation did not exist in a municipality — provisions which were utilized by Seward, for example, when their longtime local newspaper, the Seward Journal, folded in 2023. According to existing code, municipalities without a local paper could post public notices in three public places for at least five days. After the Journal closed, Seward adapted by posting notices and creating greater accessibility on the Seward city website and city council page, implementing an e-notification system powered by the city website, and posting public notices in various locations including the Seward post office, the harbormaster’s office, city hall and the library.
The code amendments approved by the assembly last Tuesday also now allow public notices to be published “through another news source” if there is no newspaper of general circulation distributed in the municipality. Assembly member Cindy Ecklund, who introduced the amendment to include publication through “another news source,” offered digital news sources, such as the Seward Folly, as an alternative.
A Nov. 20 memorandum to the assembly from several borough staff members describes other news distribution means as including radio, social media and “other outlets.” The borough may also dedicate a webpage on the KPB website for public notices, post notices are other public bulletin boards, and continue to publish important information and required notices on social media as required or by radio “when appropriate.”
“KPB will continue to exhaust all modes of communication that provide the most efficient and economical way to provide the public notice and awareness on issues of community importance, concern, and in accordance with State law,” the memo states.
Beyond maximizing public awareness or even mitigating advertising costs, the memo notes that the amendments to borough code approved through Ordinance 2025-27 will “improve operational efficiencies.”
“More importantly than the publication costs, is the timing and actual outreach issues that KPB runs into trying to plan around a once weekly publication in a single newspaper that does not have print circulation in at least 4 of the incorporated cities within the KPB and does not provide same-day distribution of the newspaper,” the memo reads. “Right now, existing newspaper printing and distribution limitations often drive the borough schedule.”
The borough’s change from publishing public notices in local newspapers follows other instances of municipalities shifting away from newspaper publication of notices. In 2023, Soldotna approved a resolution which limited newspaper publications to only those that are required by Soldotna Municipal Code and state statute. In 2024, the Homer City Council asked the Alaska Municipal League to take up the issue of municipal requirements as defined in state statutes to include allowance for web-based public notice after several notices for public hearings failed to be published in a timely manner in the Homer News and those public hearings were delayed. Kenai also removed newspaper publication requirements from their city code that year, and the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District announced in August 2024 that they would no longer post notices in the Peninsula Clarion due to changes in the paper’s print schedule and timing of distribution. Most recently, in November the Soldotna City Council eliminated entirely the requirement to publish election notices in the newspaper and opted to seek additional methods of public noticing.
“What, to me, is one of the things at the heart of this … (is) that print media is in a really tough spot, and essentially it’s dying across not just our state, but across the country,” assembly president Ryan Tunseth said during the meeting. “I think that’s very unfortunate … it’s very clear to me that there’ll be a revenue loss for some of these already struggling newspapers.
“But I am outweighing the notice to the public over that, because it’s important to me that people understand and know what is being noticed — and if that’s no longer the generally accepted form where people get their news, then it’s not effective. The ultimate overarching responsibility is to make sure that the public know the business of the borough and what’s going on, and this helps us achieve that.”
Micciche reiterated that the borough would look at the most effective way to inform the public of borough news.
“It’s not my job to fluff up other businesses,” he said. “My job … is to deliver the best service to this borough at the lowest cost possible, and the best service is no longer in print newspapers.”
The ordinance passed unanimously.
Find Ordinance 2025-27 and the Jan. 6 meeting recording in full at kpb.legistar.com.
