Publisher sues over
Waikiki rack space

The firm says the city did not mail
out the permit notices on time

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By Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.com

The publisher of the 10-year-old visitor publication Best of Oahu has sued the city after it was denied participation in the recent lottery for permits to distribute publications in Waikiki.

In its lawsuit filed yesterday in Circuit Court, Network Media Inc., which distributes primarily in Waikiki, said it will not be able to stay in business and will suffer "irreparable harm."

"Without adequate, appropriate distribution, a publication cannot exist," the suit noted.

The lottery is held every three years to allocate space in the publication-dispensing racks throughout Waikiki.

Network Media alleges that the city failed to follow its own requirements when it mailed notices for the upcoming lottery after May 1 and set an arbitrary deadline of June 7 for applications.

The Business License and Permit Ordinance requires applications to be submitted no earlier than March 1 and no later than May 1 of the year of the lottery, according to the suit.

Because the notices were mailed May 10, "a majority, if not all of applications were submitted after the May 1st deadline set forth in the ordinances," the suit said.

The city should be barred from excluding any publisher from the lottery that did not meet the requirements, since the May 1 deadline was not met by the city or by a majority if not all of the applicants, the suit said.

The lottery was held Wednesday and yesterday.

Network Media Inc. said it filed its application on Wednesday -- past the deadline -- because the notice was improperly addressed to an employee who was no longer working for the publication.

Had the city sent the notice May 1, rather than May 10, its application would have been submitted on time because the employee was still working for Network Media and would have received the notice, the suit said.

City officials did not return calls for comment.