Fair board member removes booth

Deirdre Newman

Fair board member Frank Barbaro resolved an allegation of conflict of

interest by removing a booth he partially owns from the Orange County

Market Place.

The Aamerican Online booth, which sells discount tickets for

sporting events, theaters and concerts, will not be in its usual

place on the Orange County Fairgrounds today.

Barbaro decided to pull the booth from the high-end weekend swap

meet to resolve a conflict-of-interest charge from Delaware North.

Earlier this year, American Park-n-Swap, a subsidiary of Delaware

North, made the only other bid for the lease of the Market Place

other than Tel Phil Enterprises, which created the swap meet and has

been running it for the past 34 years.

Pulling the booth resolves the perceived conflict of interest and

clears the way for the fair board to reissue the request for

proposals for the Market Place lease, Barbaro said.

“The board was kind enough to allow me the time to get this matter

resolved,” Barbaro said. “Now we can go forward.”

In July, the fair board considered the proposals from Tel Phil and

Delaware North but decided to nix both of them and start over again

because the process had become too tainted by omissions, allegations

and legal maneuvers.

Delaware North sent a letter to the fair board in July accusing

Barbaro of a conflict of interest because he owns 51% of the stock of

Aamerican Online.

Barbaro said he didn’t think the situation posed much of a

conflict because the booth was one of 1,200 and his company only paid

$55 a day, two days a week for it. The state attorney general’s

office said it could be a conflict, however, so Barbaro worked to

resolve the issue.

He considered selling his share, but the attorney general’s office

wouldn’t let him take a promissory note for any portion of the

amount, even a note secured with real property, he said. He asked

about a blind trust, and that didn’t fly either, he said.

So, the only option was to pull the booth out of the swap meet, he

said. He fears the decision will hurt the company, since it’s the

only swap meet booth it operates.

“The swap meet has only generated about 5% of our actual sales,

but one of the things it did is it introduced a lot of people to

Aamerican Online,” Barbaro said. “So I think there will be a distinct

impact from that.”

Fair board spokeswoman Pam Highwart said fair staff members don’t

have a timeline for re-issuing the solicitation for bids on the

Market Place. Tel Phil has been on a month-to-month contract since

its lease expired.