FAVORITISM CLAIMS DELAY PHOTOCOPY CONTRACT

Local businessmen claim a Buffalo Public Schools contract thatcould be worth $9.6 million was written so that it could go to onlyXerox Corp.

The school system wants to set up a system that will allowschools to download articles and book chapters from the Internetdirectly into copiers and then print them out, cutting its bill forbuying textbooks.

Superintendent Marion Canedo removed the contract from the agendaof last week's board meeting. Two vendors, she explained, had raisedquestions about how the request had been handled.

"When you get an inquiry like that, you want to make sure all thei's are dotted and the t's are crossed," she said. "I wanted to makesure everything was lined up."

Canedo referred both letters to the corporation counsel. If thecounsel assures her the proposal was handled properly, the matterwill go back to the board for a vote.

The disgruntled vendors say the proposal was tailored for Xeroxequipment. The request "is so narrow in its scope and so specificthat no one can be awarded this bid but Xerox," said Al Scibetta,president of Copier Fax Business Technologies in Buffalo.

"This was a done deal," said Charles Piske, a national accountexecutive with Danka in Amherst, which represents Kodak, Toshiba andCanon photocopying products. "There's no question this was a donedeal. And I think that's where we have the problem."

The dispute challenges the first visible major change recommendedby Rajni Shah, who was appointed associate superintendent forfinance in September. Shah came in on a promise to save money andimprove the efficiencies of the system, but most of his changes sofar have involved internal practices.

Under the five-year contract, the system would lease Xeroxequipment that would enable it to do in-house printing in 32schools. The equipment also has a computer link for downloadingtextbooks and workbooks, then printing and binding them at savingsof as much as $10 per document over the cost of buying the samematerials, Shah said. Xerox also would provide training andtechnical support.

At most, the system would cost $160,965 a month for slightly morethan 6 million pages, but school officials say the figure might belower because the output might be less.

Shah oversaw the installation of a similar Xerox system inRochester Public Schools when he was the finance chief in thatsystem.

"All of the big cities are implementing this technology," hesaid. "Right now, we have such an inefficient system."

The schools are spending about $220,000 a month on standardphotocopying machines and off-site printing, Shah said. Most ofthose operations will be combined into a single system at the 32schools covered by the lease. Eventually, the system can be expandedto other schools, Shah said.

John S. Sperrazza, the schools' purchasing agent, said the systemexceeded the notice required by state law and received twoproposals, including the one from Xerox.

"I think there is a great benefit here, and if given theopportunity, there would be great cost savings to the district," hesaid of the Xerox plan.

Xerox does not expect any challenges to hamper its plan, saidCarl Langsenkamp, a spokesman at the Xerox manufacturing andoperations center in Rochester.

"This is business, and in any good business proposal, I wouldhope we would put our best foot forward against our competition," hesaid. "And it sounds like this is what Xerox did in this instance."