Blakeman seeks new proposals after IG criticized Yamali deal

 

Nickerson Beach (from NassauCountyny.gov)

 As promised, Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman last week issued a request for proposals to provide food services in county parks and management of Nickerson Beach after pulling back a proposed settlement with longtime concessionaire Butch Yamali.

A discreet notice was published in Newsday on Thursday soliciting interested vendors to submit proposals to provide quality vending, catering, concessions and entertainment in county parks as well as to operate Nickerson's beach lockers and food service.

Yamali's Dover Gourmet Corp. was scheduled to do all the advertised services until the county's Inspector General questioned the lack of competition in the proposed deal.

Blakeman had proposed settling an ongoing court fight with Yamali by awarding him a five-year operating license, with another five year option, that restored nearly all the county services that Yamali had provided Nassau for some 30 years.

Yamali had a long history of working with both Republican and Democratic administrations. He also operates the popular Peter's Clam House in Island Park, the Coral House in Baldwin, and the Millerridge Inn in Jericho and manages Hempstead Town's Malibu Beach club.

But in 2019, former Democratic County Executive Laura Curran, who had held fundraisers at the Coral House,  attempted to terminate Yamali's county contract after reports that he had not paid required fees at Nassau's community college and public hospital.

Yamali sued.  Litigation ensued.

The proposed settlement was approved by two legislative committees and was scheduled to be approved by the Republican controlled legislature on April 25 until Nassau Inspector General Jodi Franzese issued her critical report three days before the expected vote.

Franzese acknowledged that her job is to review county contracting, not legal settlements, but she worried about the impact of the deal "upon the county's contracting/procurement processes."

She said no other proposals had been considered for the services even though competition is the way to ensure the best value for the county. She also noted that Yamali had not provided any of the disclosures required by the legislature after a contracting scandal that involved former Republican state senate leader Dean Skelos in the prior decade.

Last year,  Franzese had stopped a deal proposed by Curran to extend the license for operating the Carltun on the Park restaurant, cigar club and golf course concessions at Eisenhower park because of the lack of competition.

Blakeman told Newsday when he pulled back the contract from the legislature: "At my direction, I have asked the County Attorney to request the settlement with Dover be tabled pending a new RFP for concession service to our County parks and recreation facilities."

As usual. when new administration takes over, Blakeman blamed the past administrations, ie Curran, for the delay:

"Past administrations' lack of accurate record keeping and conflicting documents have made it necessary to start the process over on an expedited basis to ensure transparency and accountability without interruption in the start of the summer season."

Vendors interesting in the services solicited by the current RPF must respond by May 20.

Let's see if Dover is the winning vendor.

Here is the legal notice published in Newsday: