Councilman Willie “Bae” Lewis, neither this paper nor its content are for sale! In what can only be taken as a threat to intimidate content of The Port Arthur News opinion and editorial page, Councilman Lewis hand delivered to The News three large yellow envelopes. One envelope was for Editor Roger Cowles, another for City Reporter Sherry Sturdivant and the last had my name on it. In it was a copy of the city charters, which highlighted one section.

“Section 8 – Official Newspaper: The Council shall have power to designate by ordinance a newspaper of general circulation in the City as the official newspaper, and shall cause to be published therein all ordinances, notices and other matters which are required by the Charter, the ordinances of the City, or the constitution or laws of the State of Texas, to be officially published.”

Because of our constant approach to better the city of Port Arthur by shedding light on individuals who try to take advantage of citizens or use their position for self-serving motives, one can understand that we have our share of opposition. Some current city council members (I can count two now) and a number of former city council members (along with Stephen Mosley who began this internal discussion while still on council) especially do not like when The News acts as a “community watch dog,” which we feel is our place and commitment to the community and readers of The News.

It is for this reason that Councilman Lewis is trying to intimidate The News content by threatening to have city council vote to remove The Port Arthur News as the City of Port Arthur official newspaper of record.

In the Government Code, Title 10 – General Government, Subtitle B – Information and Planning, Chapter 2051 – Government Documents, Publications, and Notices by The State of Texas, Section 2051.044 reads as such.

Type of Newspaper Required (a) The newspaper in which a notice is published must:

• Devote not less than 25 percent of its total column lineage to general interest items;
• Be published at least once each week;
• Be entered as second-class postal matter in the county where published; and
• Have been published regularly and continuously for at least 12 months before the governmental entity or representative publishes notice.

 

Now of course Mr. Lewis will most definitely not want to fight the 1st Amendment, so if and when this item is added to the city agenda, he will be pushing other alternatives. Let’s take a look at some possibilities.

Yes, under the State Code, The city of Port Arthur does have the right to make a move like this if so warranted. If it is the best move for the city and its residents is what must be determined. But under this code, the only other publication that the city can move these items to would be The Beaumont Enterprise. State Code Section 2051.045 Legal Rate Charged For Publication – states The legal rate for publication of a notice in a newspaper is the newspaper’s lowest published rate for classified advertising.

That classified rate for the Beaumont Enterprise is twice that of the Port Arthur News, thus increasing expenses erroneously to twice what expenses currently are. Smart business when expenses are being watched citywide? We think not!

Next we need to take a look at distribution of The Beaumont Enterprise in the city of Port Arthur. In their 2015 Fiscal Audit conducted by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, in the city of Port Arthur the Enterprise only delivers just over 1,000 copies daily to residents. This is only one-fourth of the Port Arthur News delivery total daily. So the question that begs to be asked to Councilman Lewis, why deliver Port Arthur city information to fewer residents to be seen by fewer residents? Is this an attempt to hide information from the majority of Port Arthur residents so the city will not be as transparent as it should be? If so, this should ultimately be a huge concern for each and every citizen of Port Arthur

If the first two points are not the reason and as we can see, would be very poor decisions for the city, then it leads us back to the opening paragraph. Threats like this are not uncommon when government officials begin to see themselves under the watchful eye of the local “Watch Dog” newspaper and are becoming more and more routine due to the lack of First Amendment knowledge in government leaders. The cases listed below are but a few of this kind where government officials threaten financial blows to the local newspaper because of the dislike of editorial and opinion content, each making its way to the Supreme Court based on First Amendment violations

• The Miami Herald –v- Suarez
• North Mississippi Times –v- Desoto County Board of Supervisors
• El Nuevo Dia –v- Puerto Rico
• Brighton Argus –v- Hamburg Township Board of Trustees

If Councilman Lewis continues to push his personal agenda to add this item to the city agenda in the near future, The Port Arthur News intends to be front and center at this council meeting to share these facts in person, share additional facts and ask further questions that will in no doubt show this is a direct threat to intimidate the content of the Port Arthur News and violate the 1st Amendment!

Rich Macke is publisher of The Port Arthur News. Follow him @RichMacke.