We Bid You Come Bid…
By Thaddeus Flint
New Lebanon is finding it difficult to get people to bid on projects, it was heard at the May 14 Town Board meeting. Council members, looking for a solution, are considering changing the Town’s ethics law—deemed “basically meaningless” by the Town’s own attorney—to make it less strict when it comes to contracts.
“I think it was unintentional,” said attorney John Tingley. This was just a guess, but did an entire Town Board from another time really mean to adopt an ethics law that “simply doesn’t make sense?” Probably not. However, “read literally, it prevents the Town Board from approving any contracts,” Tingley said. While this would simplify the problem of getting things done—because nothing could be done—it seems a bit strict, especially when considered alongside of what New York State would prefer. Apparently one word out of about 30 in the law throws the whole law off. But by doing so, “a whole population of people is prohibited from doing business with the Town,” said the attorney. Basically that population is pretty much anyone in New Lebanon who has some kind of relationship with anyone who works in New Lebanon government.
The fix will require a new law, of course. The entire Board voted in favor of having Tingley fix the one word and make ethics meaningful again. Once that’s done it will go to a Public Hearing and be voted on and then sent off to the State. It won’t happen overnight.
In the meantime, “we are struggling to get bids,” said Town Supervisor Colleen Teal. New Lebanon would like to put in nice new bathrooms at the Pavilion in Shatford Park, but nobody seems to want the job. Whether or not potential bidders pored over the Town’s Ethics law trying to find some meaning in its meaninglessness before giving up entirely is unknown. The project was put out to bid for a second time and nobody sent anything in.
“I’m kind of surprised,” said Councilman Kevin Smith who has been trying to get the bathrooms done for some time now. In order to entice bidders even more, the Town dropped the insurance requirement from $3 million to $2 million, but that didn’t seem to inspire anyone to put pen to paper to say how much they would like to get for putting in a few toilets. The bidding notice was also advertised on a larger scale, in both the Eastwick Press and the Times Union, and Smith even called contractors to tell them about it. Still nothing. Some contractors told Smith they might be interested but nothing came of that either. Is everyone just so overly ethical these days that nothing can get done? Probably not. But how many times does New Lebanon have to bid the project before somebody will come along and help them get the toilets running? What if nobody ever comes along?
“You’re in a grey area,” said Tingley. Apparently, if a town can prove it showed “due diligence” in trying to find bids for a project, and it still finds no bidders, a town can go ahead and contract the project out itself. Maybe. The problem is that this is just an opinion from some New York State Comptroller from long, long, ago. “Back in the early 1980s,” Tingley said.
While everything would probably be fine if the Town now contracted the project out, does New Lebanon really want to risk having Thomas DiNapoli perhaps making a pit-stop at the Park and then thinking “hmmm, was this toilet properly contracted? And is it ethical? Better check on that. ” Not really. It’s too great a peril. At Smith’s request the project will go out to bid a third time. The start date will also be moved until after the Summer Youth Program is over in August. Anyone interested in the bid details should contact the Town Clerk for more information.
Not only does New Lebanon not get bids, but when it does get bids, they now get taken back. The Generator Store has asked that a bid they made on a generator be retracted. As much as they enjoyed having an actual bid around to look at, the Board allowed it to be withdrawn and now have to start that all over again too. Supervisor Teal said she will look into State contracts that might be pre-approved to speed things up.
The propane to power that generator, is, however all set. John Ray and his Sons must not know anyone working in New Lebanon government because his bid to supply the gas was accepted. It was the only one, so there wasn’t much choice once again. His bid is contingent on getting a generator so it might be awhile before he gets to come down to Columbia County. Fall there is especially beautiful, anyway.
Residents might not bid on projects, but they have been turning out to fill vacant positions. The Comprehensive Plan Review Steering Committee has seven people vying for the expected excitement at those meetings, and Steve Powers was appointed to the Recreation Commission.
In New Business, AirBnBs, explosives, and people living in RVs (and probably not just for camping) have attracted the Town’s eyes and ears. Zoning Re-write will be looking into how to make these subjects work well in New Lebanon. Wait, explosives? Does the Town have such a problem, some wanted to know. “Tannerite,” responded Councilman Smith. “What’s Tannerite?” wondered those who obviously have better things to do than watch YouTube videos all day. Smith explained that it’s an explosive that is currently legal, and is mostly used for firearms target practice. People shoot at it and – “big boom,” said Smith.
Big mess is also a problem. Apparently a softball league–supposedly adults–has rented the Pavilion out twice now and left “a huge mess” each time. Now they want to rent it again. What to do?
Most adult groups seem to understand you are supposed to pick up after yourself. It’s the decent thing to do. However, we don’t know who this group of softball players is comprised of. Perhaps it’s a group of people all raised by forest monkeys? Who knows? Maybe nobody ever told them what’s decent and what isn’t. The Board doesn’t want to ruin someone’s party just because they can’t complete basic tasks. So a new policy has been enacted. If your group leaves a mess the first time, you get to pay a $150 deposit before you rent the next time. Leave the Pavilion tidy and you get it back. Big mess again and, well, “deposits only work if they are painful,” noted Councilman Norman Rasmussen.