Fair Bidding in Contract?

Fair Bidding in Contract?
Fuggedaboutit!

Lowest Bid Doesn’t Squat Here

By Michael Horowitz

BRONX, NEW YORK, MAY 1- A Public Safety officer and a management employee rudely derided a bid by Hagedorn Communications to print the Co-op City Times, a messenger for the City News publisher said this week.

The messenger said that the management employees indicated that it was a “big waste of time” for Hagedorn Communications to bid on the printing contract even though the contract is supposed to be awarded, under the terms of state housing law, to the lowest qualified bidder.

Deadline Printing, a subsidiary of Hagedorn Communications that is separate and apart from City News, was the low bidder in the recent competition for the Co-op City Times printing contract.

However, board members, complaining about City News’ coverage of Co-op City, in 2012, denied the printing contract to Deadline Printing, then the low bidder for the Co-op City Times printing contract.

“It’s outrageous that management’s hatred for City News seems to filter down throughout Co-op City’s workforce,” Christopher Hagedorn, editor and publisher of City News, said this week. “The coverage of Co-op City in the City News has nothing to do with the ability of Deadline Printing to competently print the Co-op City Times.

The City News publisher noted, “It seems obvious to me that top officials in Co-op City’s management are engaged in an effort to poison the Riverbay Corporation’s workforce in opposition to our interests. We won’t be intimidated by a Public Safety officer and a management official who refuse to treat employees of Hagedorn Communication in a dignified and professional manner.”

Hagedorn added, “This time around, as matter of principal, I plan to pursue the Co-op City Times contract very aggressively. We won’t accept being denied the printing contract because we are clearly the lowest qualified bidder for the job.”