D.C.'s decision to publish this year's unclaimed property advertisement in a single media publication ? a move that has since spurred a contracting protest and charges of bias ? was "ill-informed," Mayor Vincent Gray wrote in a letter to Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi.
Gray weighed in Tuesday on the contracting brouhaha between the Washington Informer, the Washington Times and the CFO's office of contracts. While Gray has no say in where the advertisement is run (the Office of the CFO is an independent agency), he questioned why it would run in only one paper, and no free papers, when the goal is to maximize the opportunity for all District residents, "regardless of income level or information consumption habits, to be aware of and review the list."
The contract award went to the Washington Times, which ran the advertisement over two consecutive weeks in August. The Informer, which had the lowest bid (when accounting for its LSDBE preference), protested after the CFO claimed it was not a newspaper of general circulation, because it writes primarily on black issues.
The Washington Informer's circulation is one-quarter that of the Times.
"Given the significance of the regular public of the unclaimed property list for all District residents, I am dumbfounded that a decision was made to limit publication this year to just one media outlet," Gray wrote.
The CFO has claimed it limited publication to a single newspaper to cut costs.
Gray offered a way out: Return to the days of yore, and publish in two.
"Had it been within my authority, I would have ensured that multiple media outlets would have been used as they were in past years," Gray wrote. "Since it is within your authority, I cannot urge you strongly enough to widen the scope of the audience reached by this information and immediately disseminate this information through additional publications including at least one free publication."
*cough* The Informer *cough*
Michael Neibauer covers economic development, chambers of commerce, transportation and politics.
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