By Doug Miller
The City Council voted Sept. 18 to award a bid to Custom Clay of Old Bethpage to build an artificial turf field behind the Magnolia Boulevard recreation center. But LandTek, a bidder whose proposal was $400,000 higher, claimed the city did so illegally, as Custom Clay had not met many of the bid's specifications.
On Sept. 20, LandTek won a temporary restraining order from Judge Thomas Feinman, preventing the city from immediately moving forward on the project. However, as a condition of the restraining order, LandTek was given the weekend to produce a $600,000 hold-harmless bond, which they were unable to do. The order was then vacated.
However, LandTek applied Tuesday morning for a permanent injunction against the city and Custom Clay. The city's attorney, Corey Klein, said a ruling on the injunction could come anywhere "from two weeks to two months."
City Manager Edwin Eaton said he would not comment on the litigation or the bid process, but said that as a result of LandTek's actions the field project was on hold. "We're not doing anything until we see what's going on," he said.
Even though the restraining order was voided once LandTek failed to post its bond, Eaton said he still did not think it wise to proceed as long as the threat of litigation existed. "The city still runs a risk if they pursue this," he said. "If we move forward and build the thing, a court could decide we were wrong and would owe LandTek damages."
LandTek claims the city disregarded the advice of its own engineering firm, Cameron Engineering & Associates of Woodbury, and produced a letter from Cameron indicating the firm wasn't comfortable with Custom Clay.
"Based on the lack of installation experience and lack of qualifications of the Bidder and its subcontractor, and manufacturer's data, Custom Clay Inc. has not met the minimum compliance standards included in the Bid Documents," said the letter, signed by Bruce R. Mawhirter, the firm's chief civil engineer. "Accordingly, we do not recommend award to Custom Clay, Inc."
In a letter to Eaton, LandTek's attorney, Robert T. Lawless of Manhattan, repeated his claim that Custom Clay only won the bid because Custom Clay did not follow the bid requirements. "Custom Clay is essentially proposing to furnish a Chevy when a Cadillac has been specified," Lawless wrote. "The bid documents and New York bidding law do not permit such a waiver of the material bid requirements."
But Edward McCabe, the attorney for Custom Clay, said that letter did not tell the whole story. "That letter was written before Long Beach had done its due diligence," McCabe said Tuesday. "There was a subsequent educational process and circumstances changed. Once the city met with my clients and our turf manufacturers, they saw that LandTek's specs were different, not better."
Councilman Jim Hennessy, who, along with his fellow Republican coalition councilman Tom Sofield voted against awarding the bid, continued a campaign of his own against the project.
He spent last weekend filling his fellow councilmen's e-mail boxes with articles from scientific journals detailing possible health risks connected to artificial turf fields, and accompanied them with little notes scolding them for supporting such a project. "I don't know what your motivation was last [Tuesday] night.......but what you did was unconscionable," he wrote. "If you do come to your senses, we can always hold an emergency meeting to repeal the resolution."
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