No, it's not a legal issue.

After hearing that Gloversville Mayor, Dayton King, tabled an annual resolution, which would have designated The Leader-Herald as the city’s legal newspaper. My first thought was, where is this coming from? That answer, quickly, became perfectly clear. In mid-December, Mayor King corresponded with us regarding an editorial that ran on Sunday, December 12, 2010. In an email, the mayor had this to say. “Get rid of the blogs, apologize for that terrible editorial and I’ll continue being much more available than the previous Mayors this City has seen.” He than went on to say “You may print this above every Gloversville story “the Mayor won’t comment until you get rid of our blogs, stating he “prefers constructive criticism and educated ideas vs. options from people who’s hindsight vision is 20/20.” The Mayor will be meeting with the editorial board in early January. For the record. The law, regarding legal publication, is pretty loose. It says that legal notices have to appear in a paper that is printed, published or principally circulated in the municipality. The mayor, apparently, feels that if legal notices published in another newspaper, with a circulation of approximately 900 subscribers and small single copy sales, compared to The Leader-Herald that is delivered to 4,000 homes, sells hundreds of daily newsstand copies, is the better way to serve Gloversville residents. This decision, compared to 2010 legal notices, would have monetary consequences, as well. Legal rates for The Leader-Herald are 41.5¢ per line compared to 64.5¢ per line. To the people of Gloversville, it is simple. The Mayor and any councilperson who votes against having this newspaper designated as the legal newspaper is punishing the people of the city, as a personal vendetta against the newspaper for doing what we are supposed to do – informing our readers.