Complaint Filed Over Maid of the Mist Contract

The Daily Politics blog is reporting that the Niagara Preservation Coalition, a non-profit group based in Niagara Falls, has written to the State Attorney General and Comptroller asking for them to investigate a non-bid revision to a contract allowing the iconic Maid of the Mist to keep running boat tours at the Falls. (Read the Governor’s announcement from December 2012.)

A competing company (Hornblower) which displaced Maid of the Mist from its winter storage facilities storage facility on the Canadian side of the Falls has filed a lawsuit against the state (Read the Buffalo News story about the lawsuit).

This group’s complaint raises some interesting, and possibly novel, issues, at least from an ethics perspective.

In May 2011, Attorney General Schneiderman and Comptroller DiNapoli announced their intention to pursue public integrity and corruption cases.  But both state officers have a role in the state’s contracting process. (Though it is not clear whether either office was involved in approving the contract revision at issue.)

Further, in most cases, the Attorney General’s Office would defend in the lawsuit that Hornblower has filed against the state.

This could get interesting…