Special Concessions Part 3 The Story
Dear Nieces and Nephews
What do you call someone who loudly professes to be
ethical and calls for ethics reform while their behavior demonstrates the
opposite? What do you call someone who does this consistently? A serial
fibber!!!
It seems that our Stevie Thunder the County Executive, is
just like his buddy Cuomo in calling for ethics reform, but is apparently doing
the exact opposite. If you recall from a previous post, the bids for the Golf
course concessions did not follow the county’s own guidelines as far as
submission of bids and worse, for awarding those bids. The Bidding process was
also contrary to NYS Law!
You will also recall ONE of the campaign
contributions of $3500.00 from Wayne Corts. (Hence the Cuomo reference,)
There were serious defects in the BID submitted by Wayne
for the Golf course(s) food/catering concessions. And yet, despite these issues
and the fact that his bid was not the most lucrative for the county, Wayne
Corts was awarded the contract!!!
One of the conditions laid out in the RFP entitled
“Concessionaire Services Hickory Hill and/or Stony Ford Golf Courses” is that
an “Offerers who fail to submit Form A shall not have their proposals
considered.” (Form A is the form that shows compliance with the OC Local
Law 13 of 2013 aka “Pay to Play” law.)
The submission from Wayne Corts who signed the County of
Orange Contract Cover Sheet for Orange Hospitality Corp, has “Orange Hospitality”
crossed out, “Falkirk Estate and Country Club” written in longhand. It did not
have the form, as indicated by “Missing pay to play” handwritten in the pay to
play field of the contract. According to the guidelines for the RFP and the
County’s own laws, this proposal/BID should have been summarily dismissed!
Instead JB crossed it out and actually put his initials next to it so that all
would know that he did it.
Form A was not submitted with the application! Why else
would “missing pay to play” be written next to “Pay to Play compliance”? And
why was it crossed out later and initialed “J.B.” It looks like there were
special concessions made for Wayne Corts and his bid.
When we consider the contract with Orange Hospitality,
scratched out to become Falkirk Estate and Country Club, aka WAYNE CORTS we
find a County of Orange Contract cover sheet that has been altered to the point of being ridiculous.
Wayne's bid indicated a payment of 10%
of the takings to be given to the county and someone jacked it up to 12% for him.
Here’s the proposal offering the 10% (two other organizations associated with Wayne are listed on
top, Why?)
See fig 1 proposal in Part 1 (all of the “figures” referenced here are on the
two posts previous)
Fig 1 is a summary of the BIDS and you can see that
Wayne’s was not the most lucrative for the county, One bid offered 25% to
the county for Hickory Hill only and another 13% for Stony Ford only. When you look at the three bids for the two golf
concessions with liquor licenses, the
12% gave Wayne the boost he needed,( IF you ignore the % increases based on
dollar volume.)
There’s more.
According to NYS General Municipal Law Section109 and
included in Section 19 in the RFP, there is a provision that the concession
cannot be sub-contracted without prior written approval from the County
Executive. So how is it that there is an amendment date May 12th
2015, which states: “This amendment…modifies a Concession License agreement
(“Agreement”) dated May 19th 2015..”
How do you amend a contract that hasn’t been executed
yet? And the amendment assigns from Falkirk to Orange Hospitality. Then why did
someone cross out “Orange Hospitality” and write “Falkirk …” only to
change it back later?
See fig 3b in Part 2 “Amendment”
Dated May 12th 2015, to amend a document dated May 19th
2015 that was signed on the 18th????
The amendment was
signed by Steve Neuhaus apparently on May
2(?)or 12th: William Cummings, representing Falkirk, signed on May 12th. William Cummings apparently
represented Orange Hospitality but the signature was different, signed on the 12th.
The contract cover
sheet was received on May 18th
2015. It was signed by Wayne Corts on the 18th, OC Risk Approval
and OC Department of General Services both on the 18th. It is signed by Budget approval and the law department on the
22nd. It was signed again on the 26th by the Law Dept. Why? The cover sheet does not call for two signatures from
Legal.
Fig 3a part 2 contract cover sheet
And “JB” who crossed out “Missing pay to play” on
the contract cover sheet, is that James Burpoe, Commissioner, Department of
General Services? (the department responsible for procurement etc.)http://www.orangecountygov.com/content/124/1332/
IF Jim Burpoe, in his capacity as Commissioner, made
changes on the contract post submission, his problems will only get Bigger and
Bigger, as if someone was gunning for him.
This submission should have been summarily dismissed according to law, since it was submitted
WITHOUT FORM A!
With the changes post-submission, the altering of the
contract cover page, the amendment PRECEEDING the document it amends and the amendment
containing a questionable signature (more reasons for dismissal) this BID
process was in the least, sloppy and more than likely illegal.
Auntie knows that at least four of the County legislators
were made aware of these discrepancies.
Let’s see who is first to come out against this improper
and apparently illegal BID award.and let’s see if those involved learn that it
doesn’t pay if you pay to play.
Even if it involves the County Executive and a
"prominent businessman" who allegedly drinks from the KJ well.
Auntie knows that the NYS Attorney General is looking
into this matter and there has been word that the US Attorney’s office is
interested as well.
Contracting, Orange County Style!