Committee keeps split award for official and outreach advertising; Chronicle urges inclusion of SFGate

The Government Audit and Oversight Committee considered resolutions designating the Examiner as the official city newspaper and a set of neighborhood outreach newspapers for fiscal year 2012–2013. Jennifer Brown of the Office of Contract Administration explained that the Examiner was the highest scoring bidder (27 of 32 points) while the San Francisco Chronicle scored 20.4 and was technically non‑responsive under the administrative code because it is printed outside the city limits. Historically, the Board has split official and outreach work into six‑month increments to manage competing interests and spread work among bidders.

Carleen Ernicpate, representing the San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate, urged the committee to consider awarding a shared advertising budget to the Chronicle and its online site, citing reach and civic contributions. Supervisors asked whether legal changes allow moving more notice content online and whether splitting the award would save money. OCA staff said ordinances adopted in 2010 still require printed summaries that point to online information and that using a clearinghouse means the half‑year allocations yield similar costs.

To avoid anticipated complaints and because splitting did not show additional cost, a supervisor moved—and the committee approved—an amendment to split the official advertising award into two six‑month terms and forward the item as a committee report. The committee also moved item 5 (outreach newspapers) forward with recommendation.