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Transit contract in limbo after rebid motion fails

WARREN — The already embattled Trumbull County Transit Board — facing allegations its members are allegiant to a transit contractor rather than acting as stewards for its users — hosted a meeting Thursday punctuated by interruptions, raised voices and accusations, and ultimately led nowhere.

The decision of four board members to abstain from voting to rebid the Trumbull Transit contract puts “the entire system in jeopardy,” said Frank Fuda, Trumbull County commissioner.

Fuda and commissioners Mauro Cantalamessa and Dan Polivka in a Tuesday letter told the transit board, which is appointed by them, to rebid the contract because the board received only incomplete and late bids.

However, after hearing from transit administrator Mike Salamone, the former transit administrator Mark Hess, board attorney Dan Keating, Fuda and two transit members who argued the board’s only option is to start the request for proposals process over, board chair Robert Faulkner and members John Fowler, Marlin Palich and Lee Seiple all abstained from a motion to go back to bid, letting the motion fail because four “yes” or “no” votes weren’t cast. The motion was introduced by board member Carl Clemens, and seconded by Marlene Rhodes, who both voted “yes.”

The vote means the new transit contract, which is scheduled to be implemented in July, is in limbo. The current contract is held by Community Bus Services, which is operated by Terry Thomas.

“By July 1, we are done. Terry Thomas’ contract is done. We are done with transportation,” Salamone said.

“It’s really unfortunate. Members of this board had a chance to rectify a situation and move transportation forward in a more positive light. That didn’t happen for whatever reason, and I’m still uncertain as to why,” Cantalamessa said after the meeting. “The entire board of commissioners, our transit administrator, and the transit board’s legal counsel all agreed that the contract should be rebid, and it didn’t happen.”

The board can’t award a bid unless a selection committee convenes first to make a recommendation, according to procurement policies the board approved when Hess was administrator in 2016. Those policies were approved after the Federal Transit Administration complained the transit board members should not be reviewing the bids themselves after a 2013 bid process that awarded Thomas a bid.

“You’ve already been slapped on the hand (by the FTA) for your procurement policy,” Salamone said. “I don’t know what the FTA will do, but they could pull the money.”

Clemens, who uses the system for rides because of a disability, said the four who voted to abstain don’t care about transportation because they have their own means of getting around.

“None of you (who voted to abstain) are thinking about the ridership. None of you,” Clemens said.

Hess, who said he no longer had to toe the party line since retiring, said the four members who voted to abstain were doing what they could to ensure Thomas was awarded the contract.

Fowler told him to stop talking and they want to ensure a “contract” is awarded, not a contract for CBS.

The delay puts the new contract procurement process even further behind schedule than it already was. CBS’ last contract expired at the end of the year, and although Hess handed over the reigns to the new administrator Rebecca Gerson in April 2018, after telling her the request for proposals should be written in June, it wasn’t done until February by Salamone. Gerson left in August and was replaced by Salamone in November. Even though he requested a copy of the board’s procurement practices early on, he said a copy wasn’t given to him until February.

Keating said there was “no ambiguity” in the board’s policies, and the contract must be rebid.

Richard Jackson, the human resources director for the county, said during public comments that the tone board members took with Salamone, a county employee the commissioners hired to administer the system, was unacceptable.

“He is a county employee, not a member of the board. If you want to fight and act like idiots in public…” Jackson said before Fowler interrupted to object to the word “idiot.” “Leave the county employee alone. That’s my message,” Jackson finished.

Niki Frenchko, head of the transportation subcommittee for the Trumbull County Senior Levy Advisory Council, said during public comments the vote was “horrible.”

“You have no idea how harmful what you are doing is to the public. You are smirking as if you don’t even care about the seniors,” Frenchko said, addressing Palich.

Interrupting Frenchko, Palich said, “You’re horrible to the public, we all know what you are like.”

The transit system draws about $425,000 a year from the senior levy, among other local sources of cash, to bring in grant dollars from the state and federal government to fund the $2 million public system. An Ohio Attorney General opinion is expected to clarify if the senior levy money can be used on public transit systems.

After the meeting, Faulkner, Fowler and Seiple remained in the meeting room with Thomas, who has held the contract since the transit system was formed. Fowler said the four did not plan to vote to abstain before the meeting, and they voted to abstain because they wanted more say in what changes are going into what would have been the newly designed request for proposals packet.

There was discussion before the vote was held on what changes should be made to the RFP packets, and Salamone said he could present the changes to the board for approval before finalizing it.

Thomas said he believes no one else wants the contract because of the way the funding is set up — the county doesn’t have any transit-specific taxes and hasn’t been willing to use general fund money. The design keeps him waiting for payments — he is owned $1.6 million and is just this month getting paid for services provided in April 2018.

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