Instead, more than 1,700 copies of the weekly D.C. Register piled up on the floor of D.C. Printing while administrators tried to obtain U.S. Postal Service bulk mailing forms, according to a source at the government print shop.

Bertrand Thomas, director of the D.C. Office of Documents, said the D.C. Register issues dated Nov. 6, 13 and 20 finally were mailed Nov. 27. By then, at least four public hearings announced in the Nov. 6 issue were already over.

The shortened or eliminated public comment periods advertised in the delayed issues could have serious legal implications for the city, said Walter Smith of the D.C. corporation counsel’s office.

Since public notice begins when the register is circulated, not printed, the mailing delay could invalidate the legally required public notice period for announcements of proposed rulemaking, public hearings and other government actions, he said.

At issue is the legally required period of public notice before any D.C. law goes into effect or before a public hearing can be held. Most government actions — from proposed city council laws to alley closings — must be publicized for a period of at least 30 days.

But the D.C. City Council’s Government Operations Committee hearing on Nov. 19 occurred eight days before its official announcement was mailed out Nov. 27. Notice of a public hearing on special education mailed Nov. 27 had just four days to be delivered before the hearing started. The deadline for submitting public comment on an economic development bill passed two days before the request for comment was mailed.

While Thomas’ office received several calls from irate subscribers, few in the city government apparently knew of the delay.

Charlotte Brookings-Hudson, general counsel to the D.C. City Council, said she had no idea, when contacted Dec. 4, that the register hadn’t gotten out on time. Neither did anyone contacted at the corporation counsel’s office.

Agencies contacted for this story said they have no plans to reschedule any government actions due to the delay.

Paul Waters, Alcoholic Beverage Control Board program manager, said the agency will not reschedule any of its public hearings on applications and renewals of liquor licenses announced in the delayed issues. Waters said the ABC Board had already notified interested parties such as Advisory Neighborhood Commissions through separate mailings.

Likewise, the D.C. Zoning Commission has no plans to reschedule any of its hearings, said counsel Alan Bergstein. He said city law allows the commission to waive some of the required notice periods.

Brookings-Hudson also said few council actions are likely to be affected by the shortened notice period. Like many other D.C. officials, she said she’s been through this before.

In 1995, the D.C. Register disappeared for more than a month, when the heating system at the print shop failed, said Thomas, whose office has no direct authority over the print shop on which it depends to print city documents. He recalled other sporadic delays caused by equipment failure, lack of parts and shortage of personnel and a day when he was called to testify on the matter before one irate city council chairman — David Clarke.

Oversight of the print shop has been murky since the dissolution of the D.C. Department of Administrative Services in 1997. Authority over printing was most recently transferred to the newly established Office of Technology. Spokeswoman Sheila Wallace said she was unaware of the cause of the problem.

An official notice amending the circulation date for all three delayed issues to Nov. 27 will be published in the Dec. 11 issue, Thomas said.

Copyright 1998, The Common Denominator