Market Place vote to have 1 abstention

Deirdre Newman

FAIRGROUNDS-- One of the nine Orange County Fair Board members says

he will recuse himself from voting on any issues relating to the

Orange County Market Place, including a decision today on whether to

consider a bid from the company vying against the 34-year operator of

the high-end swap meet.

Frank Barbaro said he will not vote on any Market Place business

to prevent the illusion of a conflict of interest since he owns 51%

of the stock of a corporation that has a booth at the swap meet. That

company is Aamerican Online Tickets, which sells tickets to sporting

events and concerts, although it doesn’t sell any to the Pacific

Amphitheatre at the fairgrounds, Barbaro said.

American Park ‘n Swap, which is competing against Tel Phil to run

the Market Place, requested that Barbaro recuse himself in a letter

its law firm sent Wednesday to the state Department of Justice.

Barbaro said he decided last week to remove himself from voting on

Market Place issues. He said he doesn’t believe it’s a conflict of

interest -- he just doesn’t want it to appear that way.

“I had been hearing rumors that people thought this was the

appearance of a conflict,” Barbaro said. “People are going to try to

make something out of this, and I don’t want this to happen. It

should be a nice clean vote.”

Jeff Flint, a consultant for American Park ‘n Swap’s parent

company, Delaware North, said the company was pleased with Barbaro’s

decision.

“We believe he made this decision today based on our letter,”

Flint said. “We are pleased he has acceded to the request in our

letter and recused himself from participating in this matter.”

American Park ‘n Swap is a subsidiary of Delaware North, a

privately owned company based in Buffalo, N.Y., that specializes in

the service industries. Delaware North owns the Boston Bruins

National Hockey League team and operates hospitality and event venues

at large-scale tourist attractions such as the Kennedy Space Center

and Yosemite National Park.

American Park ‘n Swap submitted a bid in April, but it was deemed

incomplete because the company had omitted a document. The company

has since submitted the document and received a favorable

recommendation from the state Department of General Services when it

appealed the rejection of its bid. The state suggested that the board

consider American’s bid because the omission was “immaterial.” The

bids are sealed under court order.

Tel Phil created the concept for the Market Place and has been

running the swap meet since it started in 1969. Last year, Tel Phil

paid the state more than $4.7 million, president Jeff Teller said. It

has paid more than $110 million since the inception of the Market

Place. The swap meet grew at an average compounded rate of 42% every

year for the first 20 years.

While Tel Phil pays the state 35% of its gross revenue, it bid

more in its proposal, Teller said. He would not disclose how much

more because the bids are sealed. Delaware North officials are also

restricted from talking about their bid, but said they can provide

more than Tel Phil.

“We are confident that if the board votes to open and score the

bids, they will see that we can run a high-quality operation and

return what we believe to be substantially more revenue to the fair

through our operation,” Flint said.

The meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the fairgrounds’ Memorial

Gardens.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers Costa Mesa and may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected].