First Transit puts heat on Brown to sign bus contract

Lawyers representing First Transit are pressuring Regional Transportation Commission Chairman Larry Brown to punch the accelerator and sign the bus contract approved last month, arguing there are no more legal obstacles stopping him.

"Our immediate concern is for the smooth and professional operation of the transit system," attorney Pete Gibson wrote in a June 10 letter. "Further delay adversely impacts the operations and is causing increased cost and inefficiency."

Gibson demanded that the $600 million contract be signed three days later, but Brown has not acted.

On Friday, Brown said he will not sign the contract until the state attorney general's office rules on a controversial 4-3 vote in May that stripped Veolia Transportation of the contract and handed it over to First Transit, whose bid was $50 million less over a seven-year period. The contract is for three years with a pair of two-year extensions.

"If that 4-3 number is OK'd by the AG, then I'm fine with it," Brown said. "First Transit is a good company, and we'll go from there."

After the May 19 meeting, Veolia's lawyers filed a protest, arguing that the vote did not meet the majority vote standards required by state law. They said that the quorum is based on the number of members on the board, eight, rather than the number of commissioners present at the meeting, which in May was seven.

Arguments outlined in the protest also questioned the scoring method used to determine the successful bidder.

The transportation board considered the protest June 9 and voted in line with the original May tally. Commissioners Brown, Steve Ross and Chris Giunchigliani sided with Veolia while David Bennett, Robert Eliason, Roger Tobler and Debra March voted to reject Veolia's claims.

The eighth member, Lois Tarkanian, chimed in on one matter -- whether the board had a proper quorum -- and that vote ended up a tie.

No action was taken, so commission administrators are moving forward with giving the contract to First Transit.

"The commission deliberated and voted upon three specific motions related to the rejection or acceptance of Veolia's protest," Gibson's letter said, referring to the June meeting. "No motion garnered a majority vote. ... A protest that did not receive a majority acceptance vote does not and cannot result in an indefinite pause in this procurement."

Transportation Commission attorneys, upon the commission's request, submitted a letter to the attorney general's office asking for an opinion on what makes a valid quorum. Brown said Friday he hopes the office renders an opinion quickly to move the matter forward.

Jacob Snow, general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission, said he never anticipated a challenge on the May meeting, adding that the quorum issue had never before come up because he had never witnessed such a close vote.

"I didn't expect any sort of legal issue," he said. "I thought we were done. In my mind, growing up in the playground or in the park, when you have four votes, it's always more than three."

Brown said he too was taken off guard, adding that he was prepared to sign the contract when he heard of the pending protest.

"When the 4-3 vote was taken, I supported it. It was fine," he said.

A state law passed in 2001 says a majority vote must be based on the commissioners on the board, regardless of whether they are present. The bill included more than 100 government outfits affected by the new law, but the transportation agency was not one of them.

Mark Joseph, Veolia's chief executive officer, not only took issue with the vote but also expressed concerns about requests made to the Legislature a week before the May 19 meeting.

In early May, lawmakers considered a bill to grant voting privileges to Nevada Department of Transportation Director Susan Martinovich, an ex-officio member of the Regional Transportation Commission.

"If they were so sure they didn't need five votes, why did they put in a bill to have another voting member?" Joseph said.

Snow said that for years under his commission's policies and procedures and through interlocal agreements, the director of the Department of Transportation has been permitted to vote on certain matters. He said efforts were made to make it state law as far back as 2005, when all bills related to the agency were placed in their own section of the Nevada Revised Statutes.

The amendment, with a handful of other proposed bills, consistently have been dropped by legislators.

"It was not a hill to die for us," Snow said of the latest bill. "I called no legislators. I didn't bother anybody about it."

Contact reporter Adrienne Packer at apacker@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2904.