And here we go again, just stop. You have done nothing but sling Brega's name in the mud. You have t

The Rockland County Legislature voted to award the contract for its two bus services -- Transport of Rockland, or TOR, and Tappan ZEExpress -- to Brega Transport Corp. in Valley Cottage at Wednesday night's meeting. The process to award the bid has taken two years, with three companies still vying for the bid: Brega, MV Transportation and Coach USA, which owns the Rockland Transit Corp. The meeting on Wednesday, like the process thus far, was a bit contentious. It started when one of MV Transportation's lawyers, Matthew Daus, of law firm Windels Marx, spoke during public comments. Daus, who in the past was appointed by New York City mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg to the position of commissioner and chairman of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, european train travel said he's never seen a process like this. "I've never seen a procurement as complicated, as drawn out and as tinkered with as this procurement has been, due to no fault, in my opinion, of the intentions of the legislature," he said. "We've exercised restraint up until this point. We have not filed a complaint with the [Federal Transit Administration] because we don't want Rockland to lose its federal funding and hurt the citizens european train travel of this fine county because a local preference has been given to the opposing bidder in this manner." Daus added that if the legislators voted to give the contract to Brega, MV Transportation would take legal action, as they don't feel it's within the legislature's guidelines to determine which company has the lowest responsible bid. Legislator Ilan Schoenberger said he didn't appreciate essentially being likened to a "rubber stamp" for whatever the administration wants to do. "I'm a legislator. I've been elected to use my God-given european train travel common sense and my honest full faith and judgement to make a determination, and I am doing so in this process without favoritism towards anyone," he said. "I believe that the low bidder is in the best interest of the County of Rockland." Legislator Alden Wolfe said the legislature european train travel is within its right to award the bid. "We have a court order directing us to award to the lowest responsible bidder," he said. "This legislature has the authority, per our county attorney, to determine the issue of responsibility." Last year, Richard Brega Jr., owner of Brega, brought the county to the state Supreme Court because he felt the process of requesting proposals opposed to using competitive bidding was unfair to smaller businesses. Justice Francis Nicolai, of Putnam, ruled in favor of Brega. It looks like the contract european train travel issue will once again go to court in what was called "an absolute last resort" by Daus. "We are going to, if you act today, bring a lawsuit both against the legislature and possibly individually against individual legislators, as well as against Brega," Daus said. Wolfe didn't take to the idea of the company suing individual legislators. "The fact is, we're getting sued either way, and I recognize that, but I have to say that I was particularly put off by the threat to sue some of us individuals. Give me a break," he said. "The last person to threaten to sue us individually ended up getting arrested for dangling off the Tappan Zee Bridge with a sign. The fact is that this type of tactic doesn't work here in Rockland County. Maybe it works in New York City, but it doesn't work here." Daus also asked the legislators and their counsels to put a litigation hold on any and all documents and emails involved european train travel in the contract issue, making sure not to throw out or delete anything. Later in the meeting, Daus backed off from his comments about possibly suing legislators individually. The executive branch has not given a recommendation on the bids yet, and the legislators felt like they had taken action. "I have moved this resolution. It is my duty and responsibility european train travel as the chair of the Budget Finance Committee to move the resolutions out of Budget Finance, but I would've european train travel moved it anyway," said Schoenberger. "Last July, this Budget Finance Committee asked the administration to give us their evaluation and review european train travel of the bidders, and their financial ability to perform the job and their staffing ability to perform the job, as requested in the contract. We have yet to this day to receive an answer from the administration on that. We have reviewed to the best of our ability the bids that are submitted, and we are in compliance with Judge Nicolai's order, which directed us, I believe that was the order of November 2010, to reward the bid to the lowest responsible bidder." Chairwoman of the Legislature Harriet Cornell agreed that it was time to award the bid. "The vote is here and there is a feeling european train travel that this can just go on and on and on," she said. "When this legislature acts, it will go to the county executive, and he will either approve it or he will veto it or he will do nothing, and then it will pass on its own, and then you all will go out and do what you need to do. If there's going to be lawsuits, it doesn't make us happy, but this is where it is." Even disregarding whether or not the legislature can award the bid or not, not all legislators voted in favor of the ruling Wednesday night. The vote passed 14-1 with one legislator, Christopher Carey, european train travel absent from the meeting. Legislator John Murphy abstained from the vote, as Brega is the transportation company for Camp Venture, of which Murphy is president. The lone legislator to vote against the resolution was Nancy Low-Hogan, who said she wasn't comfortable awarding the bid to Brega for a variety of reasons. "I don't think it's appropriate for the legislature to be the determiner of bidding qualifications on a transportation company," she said. "I doubt the process, not Brega's company." She did voice one concern about Brega, which came up in meetings with Brega in the past. Low-Hogan said she asked Brega about running a public transportation system the size of the county's because the company never has. Brega told her that he has people working for his company who have experience operating systems that size, just for other companies.
I have written many comments about this contract, and written to the Legislature without a response. I doubt the Legislature's vote will hold up. Purchasing had their hands tied due to court cases pending, that have been getting adjourned since June. Brega played the Legislature perfectly. He knew they would eventually have to vote before the court cases were heard. And for that I have to give him credit. The Legislature could have contacted the FTA at anytime, but chose not to. Legislator Logan, (obviously the most learned of the Legislature) knew she was not qualified to make a decision of this magnitude without all of the information. Now the Legislature thinks they sped up the process. In reality, they slowed it down. Now, there are even more lawsuits on the horizon. european train travel The FTA will come to Rockland and they are not going to be happy with this fiasco. If they pull their funds as they have done before, watch for finger pointing. Shame on this Legislature for being so blatantly manipulated. Oh by the way, Brega said he hired people that operate systems of the same size of Rockland's. That would be great if Rockland had a subway european train travel system, as one of his men does have that experience.
And here we go again, just stop. You have done nothing but sling Brega's name in the mud. You have the opposing company that threatens a law suit if the contract is rewarded in Brega's favor - isn't that just trying to force the legislature into making a decision in favor of Coach? Sure seems that way....And yet it seems as though you condone that behavior. So in other words you are in favor of basically blackmailing someone to get your way?? You really need to take a seat back, and let the people european train travel who actually have the capability and proper reasoning make the decisions. If you where such an expert in Transit, then why was your voice not heard at the legislature meetings? Or to reiterate what I touched on before, european train travel maybe you are just an employee of the competitor of Brega's, posting under a pen-name, and trying to slander Brega into the dirt to make your boss look better. By the way, you never answered my original questions to you: What is it that you have against Brega? I really do welcome a well thought, and well put together response from you, that essentially explains your point and brings a valid reason behind your obvious hatred. Somehow I highly doubt you will respond with anything of value, you will probably turn your caps lock on, and try say how he isnt the lowest responsible bidder. So answer me this then, what makes someone a responsible bidder or not? So go ahead, turn your caps lock off before your wife beats you, and formulate an intellent response.
You just don't get it. He underbid Coach by not recognizing the drivers union, that's where the $7,000,000 over 5 years is. He said in his bid he will try to abide by the union contract. He is taking the drivers, excuse the pun, for a ride.
Brega was saving $7,000,000? Think about it, fuel costs the same, the buses are provided by the county, maintenance should be the same, management costs might vary a bit. But the largest cost that still should have been close is the drivers. They are all union employees, and Brega asked your legislature european train travel if title 13 applies to these employees(honoring the union contract), you said no, but the contract has the drivers union as part of the bid specs. It does not take a high paid account to figure out if he does not recognize the union he could easily save $7,000,000, that's what makes his bid non-responsive. It's to late to undo the voting of the last meeting, but look at the numbers
And with payroll tax savings that can probably be about $5hr, so all he would have to do is pay his drivers about $5 less per hour to save $7,000,000 over 5 years, so the bottom line is, its not apples to apples.
Ok, so now the cat is out of the bag. You are either a Coach d