$176K contract award criticized as political Democrats defend decision on no-bid contract with CME BY JESSICA SMITH Staff Writer OLD BRIDGE - - Despite one member's effort to secure a lower price for the project, the Township Council awarded a $176,000 contract to CME Associates for a storm sewer bypass in the area of Pine Street. Councilwoman Lucille Panos, who represents Ward 6, where the project is to be executed, said that as much as she would like to see the flooding remedied, the no-bid contract is unacceptable. "It is said that Old Bridge has one of the strictest pay-to-play laws," said Panos, a Republican. "But it must be known that Old Bridge's pay-to-play law has a huge loophole in it." Panos referred to the township's "fair and open process" policy, which she said allows the pay-to-play law to be circumvented. The ordinance requires a contract to be made public through newspapers or on the Internet. The contract is awarded after township Business Administrator Michael Jacobs and Director of Finance Himanshu Shah, along with the head of the department to which a given project applies, review the proposals and the firms' qualifications. While the process often involves companies submitting estimates for a project, that is not always the case, nor is it what officials base their choices on, according to Jacobs and Mayor Jim Phillips. "The fair and open process is not a low-bid process," Jacobs said. The process is more about the qualifications of a given professional, he said. He gave the example of hiring someone fresh out of school with little experience based on their low estimate, and how that could negatively affect the work performed. Phillips, who, like the council majority, is a Democrat, said one of the reasons CME was given the contract was because the engineering firm performed the preliminary work, researching and designing the project. He pointed out that Panos voted in favor of the $40,000 contract awarded to CME for an initial phase of the work. "It is … interesting to me how you can be for something one moment, against it the next, and abstain when it's voted on," Phillips told Panos during the Feb. 5 council meeting. Panos said just because she voted for the contract to complete the design stage of the project did not mean she wanted to award CME the contract for the work as a whole. "To say, 'Oh, you voted on it last time,' that's weak," Panos told Phillips. The township chooses three companies each year from whom to obtain professional services, then the three compete for contracts. Panos argued that estimates should have been obtained from the other two firms before giving the contract to CME. Democratic Councilman G. Kevin Calogera agreed with Panos and cast the other dissenting vote against the contract, which was approved 6-2. When the matter was tabled at the council's Jan. 22 meeting, Phillips expressed his disappointment with having the process held up, saying the flooding in South Old Bridge needs to be remedied as soon as possible. At the Feb. 5 meeting, Panos asked when construction would begin, and Jacobs told her the funding is strictly for design, and that the matter of construction would be revisited in the next half of the year. "That makes me question, what's the big rush?" Panos said. "The taxpayers in Old Bridge are in dire need of tax relief." Panos then asked that the issue be tabled again until two other competitive prices were obtained. Her assertion was that CME gives large contributions to the Democratic campaigns. She later told the Suburban that CME was able to circumvent the town's pay-to-play ordinance by giving money to the county's Democratic Party and to political action committees (PACs), which in turn contribute to Democrats' campaigns in Old Bridge. "Something's not right here," Panos said. "It was a political decision, and it wasn't in the best interest of the taxpayer." While Phillips acknowledged that there are ways to circumvent any pay-to-play ordinance, he said the township's ordinance is the toughest in the state. "[Circumventing] may go on in other places, but it doesn't go on here," Phillips said. "In Old Bridge, we have written ordinances to try to be as tight and as tough as we possibly can be." The state Legislature allows a company to give as much money as they want to a politician as long as they have gone through the fair and open process, Phillips said. The ordinance in Old Bridge does not allow contributions of more than $300 from anyone awarded a contract in the town, no matter how small the job is, Jacobs said. Any company awarded a contract in the town is required to sign a disclosure of what its contributions have been "[CME] complied with our pay-to-play ordinance, or they wouldn't have gotten the work," Jacobs said. "It's not logical to me to say they're circumventing it." The town's pay-to-play and fair and open process ordinances are referred to as "belt and suspenders," meaning they cover all bases to ensure that contracts are awarded fairly and ethically. Both Jacobs and Phillips said Panos is misunderstanding the ordinance if she believes that it has a loophole because of the fair and open process, since the ordinance was created to make pay-to-play regulations stricter. "I guess it's out of just not knowing, or just not wanting to state the facts," Phillips said. "She is wrong."