School Bus Contract Process

Has Been Rigged

To the Editor:

After almost 30 years in local government, nothing should shock me. However, I left Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting in disbelief and utter amazement at the complete abdication of the board’s policy making responsibility by three of the four Board of Education members in attendance. Only Debbie Leidlein objected to the unilateral decision by the director of business (presumably at the behest of or with the acquiescence of Superintendent Robinson) to make, as he called it, a “structural change” and thereby kill the owner-operator school bus system that has served us so well all these years.

Without a vote of the Board of Education to authorize such a major structural change, [Ronald] Bienkowski designed specifications for a request for proposals for transportation services from only bus companies. He stated emphatically that we will no longer have 30-plus individually signed owner-operator contracts. He has rigged the process so that the present owner-operators cannot participate unless they throw together their own “bus company” in the next two weeks.

Board member Andrew Buzzi responded to Mrs Leidlein’s concerns about the process, commenting that the Board of Education will make the final decision when they vote to award the bid. Unfortunately, by then the rigged game will be over. Mr Bienkowski claimed that we might save $500,000 per year for the next five years, but without a bid from our current contractors we will never have proof of his speculation.

I gave the Board of Education a letter supporting the current owner-operator system. No system is perfect, but it provides safe, reliable, personal service by local, independent, taxpaying, business people. I pointed out flaws in the consultant’s report that may have exposed the town to potential liability by erroneously claiming that our owner-operators are employees, rather than independent contractors as everyone has always maintained. Both as chair of the Board of Education and as first selectman, I clarified that issue with our insurance carriers who required careful wording of our contracts to make sure that they are independent contractors.

Former first selectman Joe Borst also spoke in favor of maintaining the owner-operator system, stating that he strongly agreed with my comments. Our statements were summarily dismissed by Mr Bienkowski as being emotional and political.

Once the owner-operator system is killed and they have disposed of their buses, there will be no way to correct this mistake in the future. We will be at the mercy of one bus company or another for as long as we continue to transport school children. I urge Newtown taxpayers to join with Joe Borst and me and demand a fair and transparent process.

Sincerely,

Herb Rosenthal

70 Main Street, Newtown                                               June 7, 2011