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Council Member Leipzig stated, "Based on the legal opinion, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors were advised that they could go outside of those parameters. We have a legal issue here, and I think it can fall either way depending on what happened. I agree with Council Member Ira that we have to look at what the goal is here and what it is communicating to the public, not only in Redwood City but also beyond Redwood City. When you are talking about contracts that are going out to bid, openings for Committees and Commissions, and general communications to the citizens, it is something we have taken a few hits on lately ITom a public relations standpoint. When you look at the numbers, the distribution, and the paid circulation, they are about equal. There is a large disparity, in the distribution, something in the neighborhood of 30,000 and 3,000. When we are talking about communicating with the citizens, for the best possible use of the dollar, unfortunately, much as I love Lettie and the Almanac, the Tribune provides a larger base of circulation in my opinion." MIS: CLAIRE/HARTNETT THAT THE COUNCIL ACCEPT THE BID OF THE REDWOOD CITY ALMANAC FOR ADVERTISING, AND DESIGNATING SAID NEWSPAPER AS THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE CITY OF REDWOOD CITY, AND REJECTING ALL OTHER BIDS. Council Member Claire stated, "The publisher of the Redwood City Tribune has given us a lot of different information to support his contention that we do have the ability within our Charter language to choose a different newspaper based on a different rationale. Council Member Ruskin framed the entire issue extremely well. We don't have that flexibility. I have gone to other sources to check that out. They agree with City Attorney Schricker that in a Charter city, we are bound by that Charter, and we do not have the discretion. It was my information from Mr. Fang that in the San Francisco Charter, there is more flexibility in how contracts are processed, and low bids mayor may not be the bid that gets the job. Our Charter is much more restrictive. I have wrestled with this problem for a long time, because Mr. Fang of the Redwood City Tribune does bring some cogent facts to the table. I think Mr. Leipzig does too, but given the fact that we have taken an oath of office to support our Charter, I would find it very difficult to vote in a way that might violate that oath of office. I also noted that if the quotes were even close, I would say we would have some leeway, but if we were to stray from the Charter, then I would suggest that we not take the Redwood City Tribune's or the Almanac's bid. We would take the San Mateo Times' bid, which came in 136% below the Redwood City Tribune in just the straight legal bid notices. As it is now, the Almanac is coming in 65% lower, which is a significant saving. I just checked with the City Clerk, and we paid the Almanac about $12,500 and we would have paid the Tribune $25,000 if we went with them. To Council Member Ira's point, anyone who wishes to deal with the City of Redwood City with regards to bid contracts and other matters, knows precisely who the designated newspaper is and will go to that paper to find the public notices. I do believe in the future, we need to look at this and other items in the Charter to revise or at least put before the voters of our community revisions to that Charter that might give us more flexibility. For instance, why not the worldwide web? If you really want to talk about getting out to everybody, that would certainly be a way that it could be done, if State code would allow us to do that. However, I doubt that is the case." REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTE BOOK NO. 56 JANUARY 12, 1998 MINUTES Page No. 166 PAGE 13