Teaneck says Bergen Record failed to publish legal ads they paid for

A Teaneck official says The (Bergen) Record has regularly dropped the ball and failed to publish legal notices that they were paid to run, forcing the township council to revote on ordinances that may not have been properly noticed.

“We are legally obligated to give them this pricey business, and when they screw up it creates (a) legislative hold up for us and I think this is unacceptable,” the township clerk, Doug Ruccione, wrote in an email to the township council obtained by the New Jersey Globe.

State law requires municipalities to run legal ads in print editions of newspapers.  That obligation remains despite a drop of more than 75% in print newspaper circulation since Gannett purchased the Bergen Record in 2016.

Ruccione said thirteen notices of introduction and public hearings were never published despite The Record’s assurance that they would be.  As a result, two ordinances passed by the governing body on January 4 are being reintroduced at tonight’s council meeting, according to township attorney John Shahdanian.

“Honestly, apart from assuring that they do not double charges, I am unsure what more can be done to try to address this,” Ruccione said.

The Record announced last week that starting in March they will no longer print newspapers on Saturdays.  That means municipalities with Monday council meetings will need to print legal notices no later than the previous Friday in order to meet a 48-hour notice requirement.

Dan Sforza, the Bergen Record executive editor, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday at 5:48 PM.

The Record has not yet reported on complaints of failures with publishing legal ads, although they did address “a total disaster” with Yelp’s top 50 restaurants in North Jersey.