Request By:
Hon. J .B. Spaulding, Mayor
City of Ravenna
Office of the Mayor
Ravenna, Kentucky 40472
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Walter C. Herdman, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your recent letter in which you present the following facts and questions:
"The City of Ravenna (a fifth class city) has several ordinances to be published. According to KRS 424.190 Section 2 any city of the fifth class in lieu of newspaper publication may mail a copy of these ordinances to each residence within the city.
Would it satisfy these requirements to hand deliver a copy of all these ordinances to each residence (household) in the city?"
KRS 424.190(2) as amended in 1982 reads as follows:
"Any city of the fifth or sixth class may, when the cost of the newspaper publication exceeds the cost of postage, supplies and reproduction for the alternative method of publication, in lieu of newspaper publication of advertisement, substitute delivery of a copy of the advertisement by first class mail to each residence within the publication area."
The above statute is clear in that if the qualifying city finds that the cost of the publication exceeds the cost of postage, supplies, etc., it may in the alternative deliver a copy of the advertisement by first class mail to each resident within the publication area. If the city desires to use the alternative to publication, we believe that it is mandatory that it be done by first class mail as the statute makes no exception and the language is unambiguous. There is the general rule of statutory construction that clear and unambiguous language in the statute must be held to mean what it plainly states and such must be followed, particularly where no alternative is given. See