So this morning, Monday July 14, 2014 (Happy Bastille Day to all my French friends) at 9am the Westchester County BOL Committee on Labor, Parks, Planning & Housing (LPPH) had a meeting in White Plains and one of the agenda items was an act to be voted on to up the Playland marketing budget for advertising THIS SEASON by $200k.
Keep in mind that the marketing budget for Playland has been stagnant since 1988. Legislator Harckham says several times in this meeting that it hasn’t changed in 20 years. It’s actually been 26 years –so let’s just round that up to “almost thirty years”. And then let’s reflect for a moment on how well ANY business would be doing if they hadn’t had any increase in their marketing expenditures in almost three decades.
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The current marketing budget is at around $500k-$600k, when it *should* be well upwards of $1 million if it had been adjusted properly throughout the last three decades. Other small amusement parks in the region are running ads on our local tv stations….and Playland isn’t, because there’s no money for it. Last week the Deputy Parks Commissioner told the Committee that even at this late stage in the season, they have a tv ad ready to go and could use the $200k to buy ads with $170k going to tv and $30k going to radio and it might help recoup some of the business lost when the tail end of a hurricane came through the week of July 4th and knocked back what is traditionally the Park’s best revenue period.
Moving on let’s get to the meat and potatoes of what happened this morning. Last week this issue was discussed at the LPPH meeting on Tuesday. Subsequently the Committee asked the CE’s office to provide some more detailed info from the marketing firm that does the advertising for the County. Apparently, on Friday of last week, George Oros, Chief of Staff for the County Executive’s office, sent an email telling the Legislators that they couldn’t have any of the info they were requesting, which the Legislators wanted in order to decide whether or not to vote yes on this proposed marketing budget increase.
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Cliff’s Notes Version: The Legislators want a TINY bit more money to add to the Playland Marketing coffers to help the Park with the rest of this season….and County Executive Rob Astorino said “NO!” He won’t even give them access to the info they need to decide if it’s worth spending the money at this stage of the season. Because he’s THAT afraid of seeing it work. (Hmmmmm….sound familiar? Kinda like that AUDIT of the PARK we never got.)
They can spend in excess of $400k to buy ONE HOUSE that will provide homes to only TWO families to help comply with HUD'S affordable housing mandate, Astorino plans on spending $80k for just FOUR MONTHS worth of "evaluation" of the Park by Dan Biederman, and he can’t give Playland a long overdue additional $200k to help reach out to THOUSANDS of County families and let them know about special promotions coming up at the Park between now and Labor Day. REALLY???
Sure does look like he's still trying to kill that park. This also looks like what a lot of folks were afraid of: defeat his SPI cronies and keep them from getting the deal and he'll level his infamous vindictiveness squarely at the Park as punishment. He's like a guy who throws someone's puppy out the 9th floor window to get back at them. And he's watching them -SMILING while he does it- to revel in their horrified reaction.
Rob Astorino's over-inflated ego is tinkering with the financial success of a County owned (that's you and me folks that's OUR PARK) ASSET.
Click below to view the LPPH Meeting from July 8, 2014 where they discuss for the second time upping the marketing budget for this season by $200k as well as the LIGHTS that are out on Playland Parkway and access road. (Lights discussion starts around minute marker 15:00)
