The County's bidding process is a sham.
Our airport commissioner contacted the same firms that he contacted when he was commissioner in Plattsburg, and produced the same results: one bid [8:00]. Mr. Joseph interviewed a prospect in Syracuse, who did not submit a bid. Meanwhile the County advertised its RFP in only one trade publication on Feb 8th, and set a deadline for inquiries on February 10th [9:00]. One proposal was received in response to the RFP.
It's obvious that personal connections were counted upon to secure the vendor rather than the bidding process. Calling for inquiries within 2 days of RFP publication strongly suggests that the County already found a vendor ... that no one else need apply ... that the publication was only to make things "legal." This style of solicitation makes it appear that you have to know someone if you want to do business in Oneida County. Could that explain why so many stay away?
Read the whole thing, and weep.
On a related note, CNY Homepage once again deserves kudos for hosting a full recording of WIBX's "First Look" discussion of the issue. I think this demonstrates two things: One, an adversarial interview session is a lot more informative than WIBX's normal softball format. Two, there's a demand for this kind of thing.
