Low Bidder Loses Out—

School District Explains Waste Hauling Contract Award

By Eliza Hallabeck

Despite a lower bid from incumbent bidder Automated Waste Disposal (AWD), based in Danbury, the Newtown school district awarded a garbage hauling contract that recently came up for bid to a local company, Associated Refuse Haulers of Sandy Hook.

Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson said on Wednesday, July 1, based on past performance and a comparison of prices between the two companies, “It just makes a lot of sense.”

AWD has publicly questioned its failure to secure the contract. The Danbury firm has held the contract for garbage hauling in the school district for five years, and its contract expired on July 1, according to Dr Robinson.

According to the bid results for the refuse contract, four companies submitted prices for the three-year contract. For the first year of the contract, AWD bid $54,258, which would stay flat for the full three years of the contract; All American Waste submitted increasing rates over the three-year term starting at $85,662. LoPresti and Sons also submitted increasing rates starting at $83,662. Associated Refuse Haulers submitted increasing rates starting at $80,200, which is shown as a discounted rate from $85,000.

Dr Robinson said the contract that expired on July 1 had been paying AWD $92,000 a year, and all of the submitted proposals would have saved the district money from what it had been paying. Initial reports from AWD specified a savings from its contract of $85,000 over the three-year term of the contract, but Dr Robinson said when other costs are added the difference is much lower.

AWD General Manager Dave Dunleavy said it is hard to believe in a day of tight budgets that municipalities or school districts would choose not to go with the lowest bidder.

No matter how the district chooses to look at the numbers in the bid, Mr Dunleavy said, “At the end of the day is the bid cheaper?”

While in some states municipalities are required by law to award contracts to the lowest bidder, in Connecticut legally the school district has the authority to award a contract to any bidder, including a highest bidder if that bidder was its choice vendor.

In this case, Dr Robinson said awarding the contract to Associated Refuse Haulers “for the school district it is a very responsible, fiscal decision.”

The quotes were submitted and reviewed roughly three weeks ago, according to Dr Robinson, who said she and Diane Raymo, the interim director of business in place for Ron Bienkowski, made the decision to award the contract to Associated Refuse Haulers.

Dr Robinson said while AWD appears at first glance to be the lowest bidder, ton specifications for a high school compactor were left out of the bid, which would add $16,000 to the contract, as calculated by Director of Facilities Gino Faiella. Added to AWD’s submitted cost, the company would have been paid $70,258 for their services.

AWD also did not submit Housatonic Resource Recovery Authority (HRRA) insurance permits in response to the request for proposals. According to the bid results, AWD was not alone in doing this; three of the four companies that bid on the contract did not submit HRRA insurance permits. Associated Refuse Haulers of Sandy Hook was the only exception.

Associated Refuse Haulers has been handling the recycling in the school district, and Dr Robinson added, “very successfully, may I say.”

Other public remarks from AWD focused on why the district did not have the public bids open to the public.

“We always do this, we have a multitude of vendors,” Dr Robinson said. “So we ask for a multitude of quotes.”

The deciding factor in choosing Associated Refuse Haulers over AWD, Dr Robinson said, was based on the district’s past experience with AWD.

“They are supposed to pick up every day before school; they don’t,” said Dr Robinson. “They sometimes show up at the schools when the buses are there, and complicate things. Sometimes they don’t show up. We have cases where lunch is about to start, and we have full bins they haven’t picked up.”

When a secretary at the district calls AWD about this, Dr Robinson said AWD typically replied they were short drivers or drivers called in sick. AWD had previously said they only had one complaint from the district within three years.

In a letter written to Director of Facilities Gino Faiella on Wednesday July 1, Dennis Petty, the head custodian at Middle Gate Elementary School, said over the past years the school had been written up by the health district for health violations due to the dumpster at the school regarding having lids on the dumpster. A new dumpster was put in place, but now, the letter reads, the school faces problems regarding its cleanliness.

“The current dumpster is rusted out with large holes in the bottom from which I see rodents coming and going to and from the bottom of the dumpster,” Mr Petty wrote.

“If somebody did complain about that we would be down there in ten minutes,” Mr Dunleavy with AWD said.

Health Director Donna Culbert confirm Thursday, July 2, that Middle Gate had been written up for a dumpster as recently as 2006, but not since.

 Dr Robinson said the decision to change companies was easy.

“When you look at it, we have a $10,000 difference between them,” Dr Robinson said, “to have bigger containers and better service. It’s a no-brainer.”

Associated Refuse Haulers of Sandy Hook has been family-owned and operated since 1982, two years after President and Founder Pat Caruso said he moved to town.

“We’ve been involved, we’ve been servicing the school, and we were lucky to get [the bid],” said Mr Caruso.

Associated Refuse Haulers was recognized in 2008 by receiving the National Solid Waste Management Association’s Special Governor’s Award for years of service to the National Solid Waste Management Connecticut Chapter. Along with being a member of the National Solid Waste Association, the company is also a member of the Connecticut Better Business Bureau and the Newtown and Danbury Chambers of Commerce.

“I have to perform, otherwise people will be throwing tomatoes at me over at Big Y or Caraluizzi’s,” Mr Caruso said.

The company has 16 trucks and 14 employees, which includes, Mr Caruso said, office staff. When the company began in 1982, Mr Caruso said, hauling manure was a primary job, and in 1986 Associated Refuse Haulers started residential trash pickup with a cart system.

“We try to be pro-active,” he said, and added that the company has been offering a recycling service since 1988. Mr Caruso also said he was involved in the recycling movement in Newtown when the program was set up in 1991.

“We’re very grateful that Newtown is supporting a Newtown business,” said Mr Caruso.