2003 Minnesota Statutes

     331A.04 Designation of a newspaper for official 
  publications. 

    Subdivision 1.    Priority.  The governing body of any 
 local public corporation, when authorized or required by statute 
 or charter to designate a newspaper for publication of its 
 official proceedings and public notices, shall designate a 
 newspaper which is a qualified medium of official and legal 
 publication in the following priority. 

    Subd. 2.    Known office in locality.  If there are one 
 or more qualified newspapers, the known office of issue of which 
 are located within the local public corporation, one of them 
 shall be designated. 

    Subd. 3.    Secondary office in locality.  When no 
 qualified newspaper has a known office of issue located in the 
 local public corporation, but one or more qualified newspapers 
 maintain a secondary office there, one of them shall be 
 designated. 

    Subd. 4.    General circulation in locality.  When no 
 qualified newspaper has its known office of issue or a secondary 
 office located within the local public corporation, then a 
 qualified newspaper of general circulation there shall be 
 designated. 

    Subd. 5.    Other situations.  If a local public 
 corporation is without an official newspaper, or if the 
 publisher refuses to publish a particular public notice, matters 
 required to be published shall be published in a newspaper 
 designated as provided in subdivision 4.  The governing body of 
 a local public corporation with territory in two or more 
 counties may, if deemed in the public interest, designate a 
 separate qualified newspaper for each county.  

    Subd. 6.    Exception to designation priority.  (a) 
 Notwithstanding subdivisions 1 to 3, the governing body of a 
 local public corporation may designate any newspaper for 
 publication of its official proceedings and public notices, if 
 the following conditions are met: 

    (1) the newspaper is a qualified medium of official and 
 legal publication; 

    (2) the publisher of the newspaper furnishes a sworn 
 statement, verified by a recognized independent circulation 
 auditing agency, covering a period of at least one year ending 
 no earlier than 60 days before designation of the newspaper, 
 stating that the newspaper's circulation reaches not fewer than 
 75 percent of the households within the public corporation; 

    (3) the newspaper has provided regular coverage of the 
 proceedings of the governing body of the local public 
 corporation and will continue to do so; and 

    (4) the governing body votes unanimously to designate the 
 newspaper. 

    (b) If the circulation of a newspaper designated under this 
 subdivision falls below 75 percent of the households within the 
 public local corporation at any time within the term of its 
 designation as official newspaper, its qualification to publish 
 public notices for the local public corporation terminates. 

    HIST: 1984 c 543 s 23; 2003 c 59 s 1