Preposterous - Bidding By Blog

A post on The Paul’s blog, shown below, is advertising for bidders to construct a tennis bubble on the Town’s tennis courts, referencing the bill introduced by Tom “Proclamation” Abinanti and Andrea “Patronage” Stewart-Cousins and passed in both houses. It still must be signed into law by Governor Cuomo. While The Paul will often conveniently have temporary memory lapses, one of our readers pointed out that “the governor’s sister Maria Cole, got thwacked big time when Feiner refused in 2009 to renew the WestHELP lease. WestHELP was her baby. You think the governor might remember?” We not only hope he remembers, we hope he seeks justice and actually investigates this and all of The Paul’s numerous illegal actions that have transpired at so many levels.


Here’s the quote from his website (italicized):
IF YOU ARE IN THE SPORTS BUSINESS AND WANT TO BID FOR THE RIGHT TO PUT A TENNIS BUBBLE ON OUR TENNIS COURTS PLEASE CONTACT GERRY BYRNE AT gbyrne@greenburghny.com. The NY State Legislature approved legislation yesterday authorizing the town to lease our tennis facilities to a private company. We expect to generate significant revenue from the bubble and am pleased that residents will now have more recreational opportunities during the winter months, when tennis had not been available. We want to reach out to those in the tennis bubble/sports bubble business and invite them to submit bids that the town will consider. We are currently working on the bid package. 


One concern we have with his post is the small circle of exposure The Paul hopes to use to attract bidders. He says, “If you are in the sports business...?” How genuine can this offer possibly be? Does someone who sells baseball cards qualify as being in the sports business enough to bid on this? Does The Paul egotistically believe his blog will attract a variety of bidders? ABG doesn’t think so and believes this is nothing more than a ploy to secure the bid for Sportime, his favored “bidder” of choice. After all, he has been trying to make this happen since 2007. When only one company bids for this “privilege”, he will tell us that he used every available option to get bidders and only one (Sportime) submitted the bid, saying, “I even posted this on my blog!” Another concern is how many “bubble businesses” are out there in “tennis land” that  install bubbles, are willing to invest in the cost of repairs to the tenant property, whether viable money-makers or not, and be mandated to a governmental partner? 


A more significant concern will be the amount of money expected to be lost by the Town by bidding this contract for fifteen years! Last year The Paul and the Stepford board signed a fifteen year contract with Cablevision which supposedly included upgrades to the video equipment and capabilities of the Town in their first year of the contract. We see how well that didn't work out for us already. If you ever watch the meetings, you know the audio is horrible and the broadcasts lacking in quality. Another factor with this bid was that Verizon (FIOS) was kept out the bid process based on Town specifications which Verizon could not provide. Additionally, with technology changing so rapidly, almost guaranteeing your purchase's obsolescence shortly after receiving it, why wouldn’t the Town sign a five year contract with whomever gets the bid with the right of first refusal going to that company? Similarly, why not offer a five year contract to the winning bidder with an option of flexibility that benefits the Town, and not the vendor? 


Finally, The Paul mentions that we have the opportunity to generate significant revenue from this bubble coup, referred to by insiders as conversational “placeholders”, not real amounts. What he conveniently ignores is mentioning how his negligence and ego cost us the $1.2 million dollar contract with the County for WestHelp. Gone, without the stroke of a pen. Then there are the countless losses from lawsuits he costs the Town each year. Being found guilty of discrimination and destroying evidence as part of the seven counts in the Fortress Bible Church case will amount to upwards of $8 million dollars to the Fortress Bible Church. He was recently found guilty with the Sewer District fees case that has yet to be remedied by Town Assessor Edie McCarthy, even after a court mandate. The list continues.


When it comes to offering and signing contracts with the Town, it appears if you are a “favored vendor” of The Paul and the Stepford Board, the sky is the limit! With Francis “Back-Pocket” Sheehan as the defacto, pseudo-attorney who writes most of the sloppy bills they’ll routinely pass into law; as well as the inept and overwhelmed legal staff with guilty verdicts generated by The Paul, the Town is careening into a black hole of no return. The Paul is handily sucking what little money residents have left from their thinning wallets. This insanity has to stop! We can only hope.