Audit finds Village of Islandia awarded contracts without seeking competitive bids 

A state comptroller’s audit found that the Village of Islandia failed to seek competitive bids for more than $350,000 worth of contracts as required by state law. 

The 18-page audit, released in May by Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli's office, faulted the Islip Town village for paying an unnamed vendor $150,608 in 2019 and 2020 for snow removal and $88,000 for street sweeping services without seeking competition for the contracts. The audit period was for 2019 and 2020. 

The audit also said the village paid $80,222 to a then-trustee's gas station and auto repair business for gasoline and $81,056 for village vehicle repairs without first seeking bids. Auditors called the contracts with the trustee a "prohibited interest" because of the trustee's position with the village.  

The report did not name the gas station or its owner, but said the trustee was the sole owner of the station since 2014. It's unclear for how long the village serviced the station. The audit found no "significant irregularities" in pricing. Auditors said village officials conducting business with the village in their private capacities can raise questions about conflicts of interest. 

Village Mayor Allan Dorman, in a written response to the audit in April, said the village has since stopped using the gas station and the trustee has resigned. Dorman also said the village would schedule employee ethics training. 

Dorman told auditors the trustee's business was the only full-service, 24-hour station and repair shop in Islandia, which, he said, the village needed. Dorman said the village used the business before the trustee was elected and it was unaware of the trustee's ownership until the audit. 

Dorman also said in his letter that the village in previous years awarded the public works contracts through competitive bidding, but had since not sought competitive bids in an effort to keep the village's costs low. He told auditors the village would henceforth rebid the contracts.

Dorman declined to speak with Newsday about the audit. 

The audit also faulted the village for the following:

• The village paid $513,981 to unnamed companies for professional services without seeking competition, which is not required by state law but recommended by the comptroller's office. 
• 48 of 54 purchases that were not subject to competitive bidding but that required proposals or quotes did not have required documentation. 
• Village employees used village credit cards to make 42 purchases of more than $500 each and totaling $68,087 without documented authorization. 

The report recommended that the village follow competitive bidding and documentation requirements; revise its procurement policy; and familiarize itself with conflicts of interest laws.

In his letter to auditors, Dorman criticized the audit's characterization of village finances and largely defended the village's financial decisions, which he said were almost always done correctly. 

"Many of the transactions reviewed by the [Office of the State Comptroller] occurred during the height of the pandemic, and concerned necessary emergency responses," he said. 

By Brinley Hineman

brinley.hineman@newsday.com

Brinley Hineman covers the Town of Hempstead and the City of Long Beach for Newsday. She previously was a reporter in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a West Virginia native.