$3 million deal with Looks Great withdrawn

Amid questions from Nassau Democrats, County Executive Laura Curran has pulled back a proposed $3 million deal with a Huntington tree-trimming firm that was paid more than $60 million by the Republican administration of former County Executive Ed Mangano to clean up after Superstorm Sandy.

Democrat Curran's Commissioner of Shared Services Melissa Gallucci last week submitted a proposed $3 million "blanket purchase order" with Looks Great Services Inc. for tree trimming and stump grinding.

The submitted paperwork said Looks Great was the lowest of two competitive bidders. But the staff summary didn't specify a start date or a termination date, which is unusual.

It was also unclear if blanket purchase orders, which are used to provide routine repeated services, contain the same provisions as regular contracts for such things as indemnification and minority hiring.

After Superstorm Sandy hit at the end of Oct. 2012, Looks Great seemed to be everywhere clearing up tree debris. The company worked for Nassau, Hempstead Town, Long Beach, Huntington and other Long Island municipalities and agencies.

Looks Great,  a contributor to Mangano and Mangano's chief deputy Rob Walker's Republican political club, also was controversial.

It threatened to sue Legis. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove) for defamation and libel after she questioned its bills during a legislative meeting. 

It complained in  a June 2013 lawsuit that Nassau was was holding up payment for completed work as the county sought further indemnity protection after a Looks Great sucontractor's truck was involved in a 35-vehicle wreck on the Long Island Expressway, Newsday reported.

The company in 2014 pleaded guilty in Suffolk criminal court to underpaying 56 workers in violation of state prevailing wage laws.  The underpayments involved four public works contracts -- not from Nassau-- awarded before Superstorm Sandy struck in late Oct. 2012.

Officials said Looks Great was not required to pay prevailing wage for its Nassau work because it done under an emergency purchase order, not a public works contract.

However, Nassau paid Looks Great under an 11-page  "Professional Services Agreement",  dated Aug. 26, 2011,  that said it would be in effect for at least five years and included a "contract price list." That agreement did not include an indemnification clause, which says the county is not financially responsible for the company's mistakes, and did not address minority hiring.

DeRiggi-Whitton began questioning Looks Great after its crews went into the Welwyn Preserve a  month after Sandy hit and removed 141 trees, some felled by the storm and but others taken down by chainsaws. 

Park advocates and neighbors contended the crews were taking down trees arbitrarily to increase Looks Great's fees.  But Looks Great denied it and Mangano's public works officials said the trees needed to come down because they were damaged or dangerous--a conclusion also reached by then Republican Nassau Comptroller George Maragos after an investigation.

Newsday reported the county paid Looks Great for each tree taken down in Welwyn rather than for the lesser rate of time worked. A then-public works officials told lawmakers he had mistakenly sent a "per tree" team into the preserve rather than a "time worked" crew.

Looks Great always maintained it followed every regulation and worked only under the supervision and approval of the county.

Many of Mangano's officials are now Curran officials. Gallucci was Mangano's human resources
director. Ken Arnold, then the assistant to the public works commissioner, is now the public works commissioner. And Brian Schneider, an assistant to the deputy public works commissioner who assured a Newsday reporter  in 2013 that there were no Looks Great daily work reports -- which subsquently turned up a few weeks later -- is now Curran's deputy county executive for parks and public works.

Looks Great never followed through on its threat to sue DeRiggi-Whitton and she continued to examine its billing under Mangano.

It's not surprising that she also questioned the new $3 million deal.

She said Tuesday that she had texted Curran to note her concerns about the new purchase order. And she said she asked the county's inspector general to examine its procurement process. 


"I'm happy," DeRiggi-Whitton said after getting notice that the proposed purchase order was withdrawn. She said Curran was elected to clean up procurement "and I'm glad she is standing by that."


Other Democrats also had expressed concern.

The Curran administration did not return a request for comment on why it asked that the proposed purchase order  be withdrawn.