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Commissioners keep newspaper requirement for public notices after heated debate over digital posting
Summary
After public comment and more than an hour of debate, the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners voted to adopt its 2026 legislative agenda, rejecting a proposed change that would have asked the state to remove the requirement that local governments publish legal public notices in newspapers and instead rely on digital postings.
The Montgomery County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on Oct. 20 to adopt the county's 2026 legislative agenda after a motion to remove a provision asking the state to study replacing newspaper publication of public notices with government digital notices failed and was later reconsidered and defeated. The final recorded vote to adopt the legislative agenda was 17-0 after a subsequent motion to reconsider corrected an earlier vote.
The debate centered on a line in the draft agenda that asked state lawmakers to "remove the burden of local governments having to publish public notices in newspapers and provide much better public notice to the public through electronic notices on government websites and social media platforms." Local business owners and residents urged commissioners to keep newspapers in the process.
Dave Gould, owner of Main Street Clarksville,…
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