Dear Council Members,
I regret that due to prior travel commitments, I won’t be able to attend your meeting tonight (April 28) when the Master Fee Schedule is discussed. I’m writing to object to the new fees a consultant has proposed for newspaper racks.
We provide a free newspaper to the community. Thousands of people read our paper. We have been printing and distributing free newspapers for many years.
Five years ago, when council said it was concerned about the clutter of racks abandoned by other newspaper companies, the Daily Post was the first to volunteer its services to reduce the clutter — at no charge to the city. Our offer was turned down. But I think it was evidence of our desire to be a responsible business.
We only learned about this proposal on Friday. The new fees were buried in a 245-page document.
This is an unexpected expense for a small business that operates on a tight budget. These fees would apply to 38 racks used by the Daily Post. A licensing fee of $373 per rack will cost us $14,178. The annual renewal fee of $233 per rack will run $8,854. (In fact, the city’s proposed fee for a rack exceeds the retail price of a new rack.)
The document offers no explanation about how the city decided that $373 should be the fee. The $373 isn’t based on any “fee for service” because the city offers no services to newspaper publishers (and we’re not asking for any services). This appears to be an arbitrary restriction on a constitutionally protected activity.
If you approve these fees, we will have to reconsider whether it makes economic sense to continue distributing or covering the news in Menlo Park.
Please drop the idea of charging a fee on newspaper racks.
Dave Price
Editor and Co-Publisher
Palo Alto Daily Post and
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