‘They’re trying to censor us:’ Pender County commissioners pull notices from local paper

PENDER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Some residents in Pender County are pushing back after county commissioners voted to quit paying to publish the county’s legal notices in the local newspaper. 

Last week, the county’s board of commissioners voted 3-2 to stop publishing legal notices in the Pender-Topsail Post & Voice, the county’s newspaper of record for decades. 

Instead, the board voted to post those notices in the Wilmington Star News.  

This comes after commissioner Jerry Groves criticized the paper’s opinion section, claiming it portrayed him and other commissioners in a negative light.  

“This is what we as three county commissioners have to put up with,” Groves said as he held up a copy of the paper during last week’s meeting. 

Despite Groves singling out the paper’s editor and publisher Andy Pettigrew, commissioners claim the move is not retaliatory.  

“They’re trying to censor us by putting us into bankruptcy, which they can’t do, but they think they can,” Pettigrew said. “And one of their leaders has said that he wanted to bankrupt us. So, that’s the whole point of it.”  

Pettigrew says the move violates state law, which gives the authority to post legal notices to the clerk of court.  

We reached out to Pender County Clerk of Court Elizabeth Craver. She confirmed the Post and Voice is the only publication in the county that’s “statutorily qualified” to run legal notices. She adds the board never contacted her office about their decision.  

Commissioner Brad George—one of two commissioners to vote against the move—questioned both the legality and cost of the change.  

“Those sorts of things I didn’t feel comfortable with. I also didn’t feel comfortable that, you know, some of the commissioners preach that they’re there to save the taxpayer’s money but this is going to significantly increase the taxpayer’s cost,” George said. 

Commissioner Randy Burton voted in favor, and says his decision came down to broader reach. 

“There’s 70,000 citizens in Pender County and I think that the Star News has the ability to carry information to more households,” he explained. 

Pettigrew says despite what the board decided, his paper isn’t going anywhere.   

“If you think you’re going to get your news from Facebook, you’re not. Somebody’s got to go out and report it,” Pettigrew said. “Somebody has to go out and gather that news, and that’s what our job is.”   

A week later, it’s still not clear how the situation will shake out. Pettigrew suspects the county will be legally forced to reverse the decision or will have to post the legal notices in both papers.  

WWAY received the following statement from Commissioner Brent Springer: 

“Contrary to what has been alleged by the Pender-Topsail Post & Voice, my decision was not retaliatory in any form. I based my vote on the legal guidance provided by our county attorney, whom I trust in matters of statutory interpretation and governance. 

The county attorney advised that he had communicated with the Clerk of Court regarding the legal authority in this matter. While I cannot independently verify those discussions, we, as commissioners, rely on our attorney’s counsel. Based on his legal opinion, the board acted within its authority to designate a different paper of record. 

One detail raised during the meeting was the definition and location of where a publication is actually “published.” I do not have confirmation whether the Star News or the Pender-Topsail Post & Voice prints within Pender County, which is a relevant factor in these considerations.” 

We reached out to the county’s attorney for comment.