Bristol Borough Council spoke publicly about a litigation dispute over a recent waste removal contract at Monday evening’s council meeting.
The council ended up voting 7-1 to retain attorney Eric M. Brown of Siana, Bellwoar and McAndrews to represent in litigation surrounding the recent five-year waste removal contract, which was awarded to Montgomery County-based J.P. Mascaro & Sons for $9.1 million. Council member Tony Devine as the only “no” vote in the room.
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The legal action is being pursued by two borough residents and Advanced Disposal Services Eastern PA Inc. and Waste Management, who dispute that there was anything wrong with their application and that the other applicants had errors in their bid. While Mascaro won the contract, Advanced Disposal Services Eastern PA Inc. and Waste Management ended up having lower bids and were not picked, according to court papers.
Bristol Borough’s code and state regulations dictate the borough must award the contract to the lowest qualified and responsive bidder. In this case, Advance had the lowest bid at $6.3 million followed by Waste Management at $7.9 million.
The borough solicitor, William Salerno, did not believe Advance or Waste Management to be qualified bidders. Therefore, the contract was awarded to Mascaro, despite it being the highest bid, according to Bristol officials.
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The council took Salerno’s recommendation to not award the bid to the numerically lowest bidder because he did not feel they were qualified or responsive, based on the applications. Council reaffirmed their confidence in Salerno during Monday night’s meeting.
“This is just a tough spot we were going to be in regardless of who we awarded this contract to,” Councilman Greg Pezza said.
“We did what we had to do and followed the borough code,” said Ralph DiGuiseppe II, president of council.
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Jim Dillon, the borough manager, said in an email that if the borough did not award the contract based on Salerno’s opinion, Mascaro would have likely filed a lawsuit.
Under the new contract with Mascaro, the borough trash fee will remain at $395 per homeowner.
