Brega Transportation Bill Vetoed by County Executive

BY MICHAEL RICONDA

NEW CITY– During a meeting on the Rockland County Legislature on October 3, Chairwoman Harriet Cornell announced that County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef had vetoed a measure which would have declared Brega Transportation Corp. the lowest responsible bidder for a contested public transportation contract.

According to Chairwoman Cornell, Vanderhoef issued a letter to the legislature stating that in his opinion the move violated state and federal law by proceeding upon terms materially different from the request for outgoing bids and failing to address the responsibility of all bidders.

“We have not had time to go through this but we will,” Cornell stated. “Under the charter we have to deal with within the next thirty days. It may be that we will actually deal with it at our very next meeting.”

The confusion began when Brega failed to formally submit a bid for the contract. Nevertheless, Brega’s bid was lower than MV Transportation and Coach, the other companies who sought the contract.

The legislature voted on September 19 to hold Brega as the lowest responsible bidder, pointing to Brega’s prior transportation record in Rockland County, acting to end a protracted legal conflict between Brega, MV Transportation, and the legislature.

In response to the vote, MV Transportation, the next-lowest bidder, announced that it would file suit against Brega and the legislature for what they claimed to be an instance of local favoritism. Without the passage of the resolution, it is unclear whether or not MV will persist in its lawsuit

  brega, county lawsuit, mv transportation, rockland county, Vanderhoef, veto