Hempstead Town will only publish notices in Suffolk-based LIBN

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The Hempstead Town Board on Tuesday voted 6-1 to only publish legal and bid notices in the Suffolk County-based Long Island Business News in 2019.

Supervisor Laura Gillen, before voting against the measure, pointed to the subscription-based Ronkonkoma paper’s circulation of roughly 1,200 people in Nassau County. Hempstead is home to 780,000 residents.

Town Board members said that the move would save the town $500,000.

“I’ve never laid eyes on the LIBN,” one resident said. “Why would you put it in there?”

“It’s just a question of fiscal prudence,” said Republican Councilwoman Erin King Sweeney. “That’s all it is.”

In October, when board members made a number of changes to Gillen’s proposed budget, including only publishing legal notices in LIBN, King Sweeney said, “Long gone are the days of propping up local newspapers with the hooks of positive and fair press coverage on the backs of taxpayers.”

Jim LaCarrubba, Gillen’s chief of staff, told the Herald in October that using the LIBN as the “catch-all” for the Town of Hempstead was wrong.

“You never want to dissuade local businesses from being able to see when bids are being put out there,” he said.

The resolution allowed for the board to decide to publish its legal notices in other publications only if there wasn’t time to make the LIBN; the board approved an amendment Tuesday allowing them to use other publications on a case-by-case basis, when the board deems it appropriate.

The board also unanimously passed a resolution condemning the short-term home rental company Airbnb for un-listing roughly 200 home or apartment rentals inside Israeli settlements on the West Bank.

The resolution called Airbnb’s policy “discrimination” and “hatred,” and said that, if Airbnb does not change its policy, town officials will call on “all our residents” to boycott the company.

Councilman Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, said Airbnb’s policy was anti-Semitic, because there are “territorial disputes all over the world,” but Airbnb does not un-list rentals in those zones.

A Nov. 19 statement from Airbnb said the decision to un-list rentals within the occupied West Bank came after “considerable time” consulting with experts, and that its leadership appreciated the fact that it was a controversial issue.

“Our hope is that someday sooner rather than later, a framework is put in place where the entire global community is aligned so there will be a resolution to this historic conflict and a clear path forward for everybody to follow,” Airbnb wrote, adding that the company has also removed listings in disputed Crimean territory.

“This is just another step in making it crystal clear that there is no room in America’s largest township for anti-Semitism,” Republican Councilman Anthony D’Esposito said, before he voted in favor of the resolution.