What's wrong with hiring LI Web designers?

The Nassau and Suffolk County executives are upset with a decision by the Long Island Convention & Visitors Bureau to hire an Arkansas firm to design its website instead of putting out bids to see if any Long Island companies could do the job.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy and his Nassau counterpart, Edward Mangano, plan to review the two counties' contracts with the bureau to see if such actions can be avoided in the future. The bureau gets about 85 percent of its funding from the two counties -- about $700,000 from Nassau and $1.6 million from Suffolk.

Bureau president R. Moke McGowan Tuesday defended the bureau's decision in 2009 to hire Aristotle Design of Little Rock to design its current website. The firm got a two-year contract worth about $125,000. McGowan said the bureau's contract with the counties does not require it to select Long Island companies or issue requests for proposals. The bureau, he said, was looking for "destination marketing expertise" and found Artistotle Design best qualified. Aristotle's portfolio includes work for convention and visitors bureaus on the East and West coasts.

The issue of the bureau's selection or Aristotle Design was raised by Peter Goldsmith, chairman of the Long Island Software and Technology Network. Goldsmith recently spearheaded a campaign to get LIPA to ease the path for Long Island companies to win contracts from the big utility. Goldsmith called officials about the visitors bureau.

"We're trying to keep jobs and work here on Long Island," Goldsmith said.

In a statement, Levy said he would ask the Suffolk County attorney's office to review contract language with the bureau "to determine if local preference requirements are required." If not, Levy said, he would "take steps" to see that they are. A Mangano spokeswoman said the Nassau executive would be working with Levy. "We have a lot of talented people on Long Island," Mangano said through the spokeswoman.

Two Long Island technology companies, XT Group of East Meadow and MaxBurst Inc. of Amityville, said they could have done the work and were upset they did not get a chance to bid on it.

"I feel an organization like that [LICVB] should have invited some firms over to discuss the project and see what we can do," said MaxBurst president Andrew Ruditser.

Paul Trapani, co-founder of XT Group, an information technology infrastructure and portal company, said he believed his firm was capable of performing the work and wishes it had been given a chance on a bid. "No one got a shot," Trapani said.