Staten Island, NY – The franchise for towing cars and trucks off Staten Island’s highways is back in the hands of a local outfit and not in the hands of Knights Collision of Brooklyn, as was reported here on Vos Iz Neias, after the city acknowledged in court that the NYPD panel sifting bids didn’t add straight.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The sloppy math nearly cost Staten Island Towing its $1.5 million-a-year proceeds on a city permit to operate in the borough, which it had held for nine years running, and might have put it out of business. And it might have tested their motorists patience.
The owner of the Island towing firm contended that in the two weeks Knights Collision of Brooklyn had the franchise, that company took more than an hour in several instances to get to tow jobs on the borough’s highways.
Acknowledging the goof in a Manhattan courtroom, city attorney Louise Moed, who represented the NYPD, said, “There’s been a change of circumstances. The city believes that it must now re-award the permit to Staten Island Towing. … Now the scoring is five points in favor of Staten Island Towing.”
The mistake also spurred Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly to gut the five-member panel that reviews the city’s 16 towing contracts, which comprised two lieutenants, a captain, a sergeant, and a level 1 traffic supervisor, NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Paul Browne said. Also, he added, “Internal Affairs is immediately conducting a review of all of the contracts to make sure no other errors are found,” Browne said.
Browne couldn’t say what specifically caused the math mistake that derailed the multimillion-dollar permit process. “It is troubling, and it’s being reviewed,” he said. [SI Advance]
B’H – staten island towing is owned by a frum yid, while knight’s is the italian mafia. Let the yid make the money. B’H.
CLUES ABOUT MISTAKE
Although other city officials said they didn’t know exactly how the gaffe happened, the handwritten scoring forms filled out by each of the five panel members provide some clues.
Each panel member grades the bidding companies between one and 10 in 10 separate categories. Staten Island Towing was initially given 415 out of a possible 500 points, while Knights scored 417.
But one of the panelists, NYPD Lt. Joe Wolff, may have left his total score for Staten Island Towing blank — whoever filled in the total score wrote with a different handwriting than the rest of the grading sheet.
Wolff had given Staten Island Towing a total of 90, but whoever tallied up his individual grades either misread his handwriting or miscalculated, giving the firm an 82 instead.
Another adding error had gypped Knights out of one point, but when all the numbers were added up, Staten Island Towing still came out ahead, 423 to 418, Weiss said.
Said Leider: “Today people are very dependent on electronic calculators, and they forget how to do arithmetic.”
Staten Island Towing’s owner, Andrew Leider, said he was glad he pushed for the review. “Had I not done so, 24 people would have been out of work and I would have taken a horrendous financial loss,” he said.
Leider charged response times increased when his company temporarily lost the contract. That could not be confirmed last night.
“In life, mistakes happen. We’re just pleased that we were able to catch it and correct it,” said Howard Weiss, Staten Island Towing’s lawyer.
“This is a win not only for our client, but also for the people of Staten Island,” he added, referring to the company’s nine years on the Island’s highways.
Knights owner Joseph Robles said he was stunned by the announcement, and a subsequent ruling by Judge Lottie Wilkins that Knights would have to file a separate lawsuit if it wants to fight the decision.
“I’m not going to have any comments. This is a surprise. We weren’t expecting this,” said Robles, who lives in Silver Lake.