Meet’s Operator Won’t Be Swapped

Directors of the Orange County Fair voted Thursday not to solicit bids for running the weekly swap meet, instead choosing to negotiate with the company that has operated it for the last 34 years.

The decision came after nearly two dozen swap meet vendors and community leaders urged the board to retain Tel Phil Enterprises and to reject a staff recommendation to hire a consultant to begin the bidding process.

The board’s decision came even though American Park ‘n Swap, a subsidiary of concession giant Delaware North of Buffalo, N.Y., already had offered more money to operate the swap meet, which is known as the Market Place.

“It’s wrong to use a bidding process because you will get the highest bidder and not the best company to operate [the swap meet],” vendor David Batistelli said.

Tel Phil pays the fair 35% of its gross receipts, which amounted to $4.5 million last year. American had offered 50%.

The proposal to hire a bidding consultant died without a second and little debate.

Vendor Howard Andersen, who has sold beef jerky at the Market Place for four years, preferred no changes in the swap meet’s management.

“During those four years I’ve been able to have a job and buy a home. Don’t kill the goose that laid the golden egg,” Andersen said.

Murray Dempster, president of Vanguard University, said the Teller family, which owns Tel Phil, has become an integral part of the community, providing gifts to local charities. Vanguard has a campus on Fair Drive in Costa Mesa, just north of the fairgrounds.

With hundreds of vendors, restaurants and entertainment offerings on weekends, the Tellers converted an asphalt parking lot into one of the county’s “economic engines,” Dempster said.

Tel Phil founder Robert Teller started the swap meet in 1969 and has run it ever since.

As a result of the board’s decision, its executive committee will try to negotiate a 10-year agreement with Tel Phil.

Last July, the fair board rejected bids by Tel Phil and American Park ‘n Swap after both sides raised procedural questions.

Since Tel Phil’s contract ran out last summer, it has been running the swap meet on a month-to-month contract.

Although the fair is a state agency, it is not obligated to award the contract by a competitive process, said Becky Bailey-Findley, the fair’s executive director.

After the meeting, a Delaware spokesman said the fair could receive more revenue and in some cases improve swap meet services if a bidding process was initiated.

“We believe this board ultimately has a responsibility to put the market place out to bid,” spokesman Jeff Flint said.