Typical MoCo maneuver: Tell public after comment deadline passes

At the recent public meeting on the widening of Seven Locks Road, Montgomery County officials distributed a "Public Comments Form" for citizens to make their views known in writing.

The form gives taxpayers a deadline of Friday, October 13, 2006, to send in their written comments.

That's a rather difficult task for even the most civic-minded person, because the officials handed out the forms on October 25.

An honest bureaucratic mistake? Or was it, perhaps, a setup for the future, so that the county can claim that it received no public opposition by the deadline?