Panel Rejects Lottery Contract Appeal

After all that election excitement, it's back to our regularly scheduled LL programming...like the lottery contract.

In a decision released Monday, an administrative law judge ruled that a challenge to the new D.C. lottery contract is not valid.

The challenge, filed by old contract holder Lottery Technology Enterprises, held that the new contract submission, by W2I, was misjudged by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. The contract, caught in the middle of a political pissing match of epic proportions, has yet to be approved by the council.

Judge Jonathan D. Zischkau, with a colleague on the Contract Appeals Board concurring, ruled that LTE's arguments either weren't legally "timely" or did not have merit. Here's the full opinion [PDF].

So goes Vincent C. Gray and the council's last legitimate excuse for not acting on the proposal. Problem is, the latest contract submission ran out of time yet again last week. Will Mayor Adrian M. Fenty resubmit it---again?