Town Board Still Spending $1million per week on the Ballpark—June Overruns Equal $4+ million—Votes still unanimous at 5-0

July 1, 2011 They say baseball is a game of numbers, but here in Ramapo it’s not the numbers on the field that are impressive. As the team is muddling along, struggling to get out of next to last place with a 12 and 19 record, the Ramapo Town Board keeps piling on the debt with millions in cost overruns at meeting after meeting. In the two board meetings in June, the million dollars a week pace has been matched again. And for those who think the ballpark is built and the spending is over, take some time to attend a board meeting—the wasteful spending continues on this project.

The League Leader for cost overruns is a construction company from outside the county, Morano Brothers, which put in for cost overruns #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23, #24, and #25 at the June 6 meeting, and then came back for a half-million more with #26 and #27 at the June 22 meeting. The Boulder bobble-heads on the board, all five, nodded in assent on every one of these overruns.

June 6, 2011
At the regular meeting of the Ramapo Town Board, Ullman, Friedman, St. Lawrence, Hunter, and Withers tallied up the latest cost overruns for the construction of the ballpark and handed the tab back to the taxpayers.

The pretense is gone—no more muttering about "No taxpayer dollars will be used"—that lie has become the solid foundation upon which this entire enterprise rests, and it no longer shames anyone on this board. Voting on every one of these overruns was 5 in favor, 0 against.

Resolution 2011—395
A series of 8 cost overruns (change orders number 18-25) Morano Brothers.

Resolution 2011—396
Payments to Turco Golf and High Peaks Fence and Rail Co. for recreational facility built on the Ballpark site. The Town board decided to reimburse the two companies for this work at the stadium:

The June 6 meeting lasted eight minutes. That’s not a mistake—the Agenda notes that it began at 8pm and adjourned at 8:08. In that time, our prudent board members and supervisor spent an additional $3,944,604.72 on the ballpark. But added to the cost overruns for the ballpark, the board also squeezed in the issuance of $3,000,000 serial bonds to pay for construction, reconstruction, widening, and resurfacing of highways, roads and streets. . . at various locations in and for said town. By not itemizing the locations for this work, there is the possibility that some or even much of this bond will go to work done at the ballpark. The town was required to widen roads and make other changes to Pomona Road and Fireman’s Memorial drive. This work has not been completed and sources say it will not be completed for a year. The money might be coming out of this bond.

So, to sum up June 6: In the eight minutes that they tolerated the inconvenience of having to be at a meeting, the board members and supervisor spent $6,944,604.72, or $868,075 per minute. Maybe it’s fortunate they weren’t up to holding a 20-minute or half-hour meeting.

June 22, 2011
About two weeks after that first orgy of spending, the second town board meeting produced more cost overruns and another half million on the stadium.

Resolution 2011—419
These are more cost overruns for Morano Brothers, Corp:

If you have the suspicion that this contract with the out-of-county company is getting a little out of control, here’s the bottom line. Morano Bros. Corp. from Croton-on-Hudson originally bid $4,125,000.00 to do the work at the ballpark. The Town of Ramapo accepted that bid in a contract. Twenty-seven change orders later, the taxpayers are now paying $14,535,542.62. That’s more than triple in cost overruns. Sources tell us this company is also doing the Maple Avenue work and has been submitting serial cost overruns there.

That’s $1.1 million a week for the first month of the season. Anyone think the team is clearing a million a week to help the residents out with these bills? Anyone think the team will clear $4.4 million for the entire season to help with just one month of cost overruns for this enterprise? I know the ex-school teacher/spokesperson has come up with some explanations that might be dubbed Tisi Freakonomics, and it’s already had some test airings on the local radio station. The basic premise of this new economics seems to be: Don’t worry, we’ve got it covered, and you don’t need to bother yourself with any numbers.

We have a simple question if anyone is up to fielding it. How do you cover a million a week in expenditures when you have attendance figures that are under 3,000 per game on average, and the team lost the home revenues for their first three home games—these were played in Quebec with fewer than a thousand attending each game? And remember, Mr. St. Lawrence signed on to a sharing program with the Town getting a mere dollar on each ticket sold and two bucks for each car parked at the stadium. Anybody got an answer with some real numbers in it? By real numbers, we mean figures that include how many tickets were actually sold, how many were given away, who pays the police overtime at the games, who pays the utility bills, what percentage does the home team get of the gate at away games, and so on. We would remind Mr. Tisi that statements like, "We’re gonna make. . ." do not produce real numbers, just marketing copy.

One final unnerving note about the attendance this year. So far, the attendance for the League overall, is down more than 20% from last year. In 2010, the total average attendance for the year was 1,979. So far this season, 2011, the overall league average is 1,574. In fact, if you trace the history of this franchise back six years, the Can Am League has experienced decreased attendance every year. Here’s a comparison:

This table includes four of the original teams that were playing in the CanAm League in 2005 that have survived the first six years. A number of other Can-Am teams folded along the way, including the Nashua Pride, the Atlantic City Surf, the New Haven County Cutters, the North Shore Spirit, the Ottowa Rapidz, and the American Defenders. The Sussex Skyhawks folded in 2010, unable to go on with an average attendance of 1,670 per game. The Newark Bears are not included because they joined the League this year after a bankruptcy in 2008 and leaving the Atlantic League last year. And the Pittsfield Colonials joined last year, the Boulders joined this year.

Now if someone showed you these figures and said the chart (above) represents the value of a company’s stock over the last six years (3,085 in 2005--1,574 in 2011) and they asked if you would like to invest in this company, maybe $50 or $60 million of yours, and your neighbor’s taxes, what do you think? Those at Tisi Freakonomics would tell you, "It looks pretty good. Don’t worry about that 50% lost value. They’ll be doing some catering, too."

One more question for the spokesperson. The attendance numbers for the playoff games last year in the Can-Am League were worse than the average attendance for the regular season—1,979 during the regular season but only an average 1,430 during the playoffs. How do you sell fewer tickets in the playoffs than your teams did during the season? In the 2010 post-season play, average attendance for the four teams involved was 1,430 per game. Three out of the four that made the playoffs were under 1,000 on average at the playoff games (767, 660, and 426). An anomaly, or does this mean the best teams in the League are drawing the smallest crowds? If that’s true, what does this say about the future viability of this League?

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