Benbrook City Council approves Commercial Recorder as official newspaper, citing large cost savings

The Benbrook City Council on June 18 approved Resolution No. 2026-04 to designate the Commercial Recorder as the city’s official newspaper for publishing legal notices. City Secretary Beth Beth Fisher told the council the Commercial Recorder meets statutory requirements and publishes a printed edition five days a week.

"The Commercial Recorder satisfies all legal requirements and offers significant cost savings," Fisher said during her presentation, citing sections 2051.044, 2051.045 and 2051.049 of the Texas Government Code and article 3, section 3.10 of the Benbrook City Charter. Fisher said the Commercial Recorder's published classified rates are about 68% lower than rates the city currently pays to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and that the Recorder publishes a printed edition five days a week.

Council member Mr. Reagan asked for concrete cost figures. Fisher and staff reported per-line publication figures of about $6.06 with the Star-Telegram versus $1.90 with the Commercial Recorder, noted a $25 affidavit charge when required for certain publications with the Star-Telegram and explained the Commercial Recorder does not charge a service fee. Staff supplied fiscal-year totals of $14,543 for FY 2023–24, $20,835 for FY 2024–25 and $6,998 so far in the current fiscal year and said those figures support the projected savings.

Miss Franklin moved to adopt Resolution No. 2026-04, and Mister Phillips seconded. The mayor announced "Motion carries," and the resolution was approved as presented; no roll-call tally was read into the record. Staff said the city will post notice of the change on the city website and use social media to inform the public, and that legal notices are available online through commercialrecorder.com free of charge after account signup.