The Village of Manorhaven will hold a public hearing on April 21 on a proposed law that forbids the village from imposing geographic restrictions on bids — a practice that in the past have cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, Manorhaven Village Attorney James Toner said.
“What the board did at the time was they imposed a four-mile restriction. As a result of that four mile restriction Meadow [Carting] was no longer able to bid,” Toner said at a Board of Trustees meeting on March 24. “The Dejana Company was able to bid because there was that four-mile restriction. The successful bid on the contract was $563,000 so the village paid $94,000 more because they rejected the renewal of Meadow who had an office in Westbury.”
Village Trustee Rita DiLucia defended the board’s action at the board meeting.
“When it was presented to the board it never said that Meadow did not put in their bid. It was never explained to the board that they didn’t put in their bid because they didn’t meet the criteria,” DiLucia said.
Village records show that Meadow Carting Inc., a garbage collection service located in Westbury, had a sanitation contract with the village from June 1, 2008 to May 31, 2009 in the amount of $459,000.
According to village records, the village board voted in 2009 to require that “The contractor shall maintain and staff an office and vehicle storage, repair and maintenance facility within four miles of the Village and within the geographic limits of the Town of North Hempstead.”
Toner said the restriction was targeted at Meadow Carting.
“This restriction more or less effected the garbage and sewer contracts. What it did was it prevented outside companies from bidding if they did not have a maintenance facility within a four-mile radiance of Manorhaven within the Town of North Hempstead,” Toner said.
Meadow Carting attorney Anthony Core objected to the new geographic radius requirement in a letter to then Mayor Micahel Meehan dated May 18, 2009, according to village records.
“This radius requirement precludes Meadow from bidding next week,” Core said in the letter. “We hope that the current authorities will consider a similar modification to allow for competition for your services.”
Meadow Carting went ahead and bid $469,000 for collection, removal, and disposal of solid waste and recyclables within the village, which was rejected by the board in May 2009 because of the four-mile restriction.
Instead, the board awarded the contract to Dejana Industries Inc., which has an address at 30 Sagamore Hill Drive in Port Washington.
Their bid was for $563,284 bid — $94,284 more than what Meadow had bid.
The one-year contract was approved by DiLucia, then Trustee John Dileo and Meehan, according to village records.
The minutes of the meeting indicate that then Deputy Mayor Browstowin arrived after the vote. The whereabouts of then Trustee Brendan Fahey are not apparent from the minutes.
Seven days later, the board of trustees met again and unanimously passed a resolution on June 5, 2009 to extend the contract with Dejana Industries Inc. from one year to four with increases included for future years.
The reason stated for the amendment was to “further continuity of service be assured and predictable cost be assured.”
According to the official minutes no members of the public were present for this resolution.
This amendment increased the total value of Dajana’s contract from $563,284 to $2,356,570.
The yearly contract fees were raised to $580,183 from June 1, 2010 to May 31, 2011; $597,588 from June 1, 2011 to May 31, 2012; and $615,515 from June 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013.
Dejana’s contract expired In the spring of 2013 and with a new board the four-mile restriction was eliminated when the contract was again put out to bid.
Meadow Carting was awarded the contract after submitting a low bid of $479,000 —$136,515 lower than Dejana’s cost the previous year.
The village paid Meadow Carting Inc., $517,320 from June 1, 2014 to May 31, 2015.
