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D.C. Municipal Regulations (Last Updated: September 13, 2017) |
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Title 1. MAYOR AND EXECUTIVE AGENCIES |
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Chapter 1-3. RULES OF THE OFFICE OF DOCUMENTS AND ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUANCES |
Section 1-307. PREPARATION AND FILING OF DOCUMENTS
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307.1The Office of Documents and Administrative Issuances shall accept electronic submissions of documents. A person seeking to submit a document to the Office of Documents shall log onto www.dcregs.dc.gov and submit the document. Submissions should be in Microsoft Word format. Rulemaking submissions should adhere to the rules in §§ 307.9 - 307.15 of this chapter.
307.2All documents submitted to the Office of Documents shall adhere to the Office’s Rulemaking Handbook and Publications Style Manual. The requirements include:
(a)Documents must be formatted for eight and one-half inch by eleven inch (8½ in. x 11 in.) white, opaque paper. The text must be set within margins not less than one (1) inch on all sides.
(b)The preferred font family for all Office of Documents publications is Times New Roman, 12 point size with “Automatic” font color. The use of color in type-faces or charts is discouraged, to enable ease of reading when printed in black and white.
(c)All documents submitted for publication in the District of Columbia Register must be single-spaced. Extra single spaces between paragraphs or sections, as well as additional spaces between major divisions of documents, are generally acceptable. Documents should be prepared with attention to the ease of reading.
(d)Documents should be prepared to be read vertically. Charts or other materials which cannot be reproduced in vertical form may be accepted for publication. In such cases, the text should be prepared for publication so that the top of the text will appear on the left margin of the page.
(e)Documents generally should not be signed on the originals, except Council acts and Mayor's Orders. Signed originals or copies are not acceptable as substitutes for the signature required on the transmittal form.
307.5Documents on letterhead and documents in the form of letters or memoranda are generally not acceptable for publication in the District of Columbia Register.
307.6Except when considered necessary by the Administrator, blank forms for applications, registrations, reports, contracts, and similar items, and the instructions for preparing the forms, may not be published in full. A brief description or list of forms describing the purpose and use of each form, as well as where copies of the form(s) may be obtained (website address, telephone number, etc.), may be submitted for publication.
307.7After a document has been submitted for publication, a substantive error in the text may be corrected only by the filing of another document making the correction. Pending the receipt of the corrected document, the Office of Documents should be informed by telephone or email to dcdocuments@dc.gov of the need to withhold publication pending the submission of the corrected document.
307.8If a document has been adopted by a legislative or quasi-legislative body in session, substantive or technical errors in the documents as adopted will not be corrected by the Office of Documents and Administrative Issuances unless the correction is approved by the body in public session or the correction is made pursuant to the lawful adopted procedural rules of the body.
307.9All documents submitted for publication in the District of Columbia Register shall be submitted at http://dcregs.org. Anyone wishing to submit documents must obtain a username and password from the Office of Documents. The request for a username and password shall be submitted in writing to dcdocuments@dc.gov by an agency liaison. The request shall include the name of the agency, the name of the person with rulemaking authority for the agency, and the contact information for the agency liaison requesting the information and access to the e-rulemaking system. The Administrator or Editor will create the username and password and deliver the information.
307.10 The agency drafter shall sign on to the e-rulemaking system with the drafter’s individual username and password. Electronic submissions will be taken as a confirmation that the document was submitted by the designated agency drafter. Any submissions not personally executed by the authorized official and submissions by those not legally vested with authority to adopt rules or attest to the adoption of rules by a rulemaking body will not be accepted.
307.11 When submitting rulemakings to the Office of Documents for publication in the District of Columbia Register:
(a) An executive agency subordinate to the Mayor shall also submit:
(1) An Office of Policy and Legislative Affairs certification for publication in the District of Columbia Register; and
(2) An Office of the Attorney General (OAG) legal sufficiency certification (via a Rulemaking Transmittal Form).
The OPLA Certification and OAG Legal Sufficiency Certification shall be submitted to the Office of Documents’ email address, dcdocuments@dc.gov, in compliance with § 306.11 herein.
(b) An independent agency shall also submit a Rulemaking Transmittal Form that contains the signature of Agency General Counsel certifying that the substance of the text of the rule(s) has been reviewed and is, in the opinion of General Counsel, legally sufficient. The signed Rulemaking Transmittal Form shall be submitted to the Office of Documents’ email address, dcdocuments@dc.gov, in compliance with § 306.11 herein.
307.12Certification of legal sufficiency, by the Office of the Attorney General or Agency General Counsel, must be included with all rulemaking actions. Certification of proposed rules may be conditioned upon review of final rules. If the substance of proposed rules for which final certification has been given is not modified prior to final rulemaking action, the final rules do not require duplicate certification.
307.13 Certification of the form and contents of notices of proposed, final, and emergency rulemaking shall be made by the Office of Documents, pursuant to the provisions of §§ 309 through 311 of this chapter.
307.14 The Administrator will not certify and publish rulemaking notices in the District of Columbia Register unless it is clear that the promulgator of the rule or proposed rule named on the electronic submission has legal authority to issue the rules.
307.15 [RESERVED]
307.16In each instance where a document submitted for publication is rejected, pursuant to § 305.5 (formatting), the Office of Documents shall issue a notice of rejection which shall indicate the reason(s) for rejection. The notice of rejection shall be issued as soon as possible after review of the document.
307.17An agency may request reconsideration of the rejection of any document for publication in the District of Columbia Register by submitting a written request for reconsideration to the Administrator stating the reasons why the document should be published as submitted. The Office of Documents will respond to each request for reconsideration in writing within two (2) business days of the receipt of the request.
307.18If a rulemaking notice is rejected and subsequently submitted in corrected form, it must be accompanied by a new transmittal form executed in accordance with this section.