Investments

Bank Of America Investment A Superior Court judge said Friday that county officials violated public contract law last year when they awarded a Queens company the job of turning vast abandoned landfills into parkland.

Failure to furnish such notice or proof within the time required by this Contract does not invalidate or reduce a claim.

Investment Opportunity In response to a lawsuit filed by Mahwah resident and contractor Frank Weidner, Judge Jonathan N. Harris in Hackensack said the county should have rejected a proposal by Tully Environmental Inc., because the proposal deviated from two areas of the county's specifications for the Overpeck County Park project. The county argued at the time that flexibility was allowed under the bidding process used.

Failure to furnish such notice or proof within the time required by this Contract does not invalidate or reduce a claim.

Banc Of America Investment Tully, the only bidder on the project, was awarded the job even though it asked for more flexibility in the type of fill material that could be used to cap the landfill.

Failure to furnish such notice or proof within the time required by this Contract does not invalidate or reduce a claim.

Banking Investment The county granted the company wording in the contract that critics charged - and Harris ruled - amounted to an escape clause should market conditions make the project unprofitable.

Holtzhauser's lawsuit asks a judge to invalidate the ordinance and seeks unspecified financial damages. OHB Homes filed a related complaint in Superior Court on Dec. 17 seeking to have the ordinance invalidated. use application to the township that was deemed complete on Oct. 21, according to its lawsuit. Township Solicitor Herbert H. Butler Jr. could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Investment Solution Strategic Public contract law, Harris said, was never intended to allow a bidder "to tweak and twist and turn what the public expected into what is purportedly advantageous."

The planned project financing has alarmed EU officials. The US Eximbank, sponsored trade bank, is lending $800m for the $2.5bn scheme. The transport ministry said it was negotiating with the International Monetary Fund and the European Investment Bank, the EU's infrastructure bank, about raising other finance. But the EIB said it did not finance contracts awarded without public tenders and the IMF said it did not finance projects.

Investment Banking Services An attorney for Tully said Friday that the company would appeal the decision.

Bank Investment The contract "was properly awarded by the prior administration," said Tully's attorney, Brian Montag.

Alternative Investment "The bottom line is that Tully had offered a proposal that met all of the material elements of the county's [expectations]," he said, adding that those expectations were simply to close the landfills with state-approved fill material and build a park on top of it.

Online Investment Services The decision was a victory for the administration of Democratic County Executive Dennis McNerney, who blasted the contract, which was awarded during the last days of the Republican administration of William "Pat" Schuber.

Accompany Essential Investment The McNerney administration, which offered no defense of the contract Friday, said the deal exposed taxpayers to significant risk.

Investment Company "As we've contended all along, the Tully contract was invalid, and we're pleased that this will now allow us to move forward with the Overpeck project in a more constructive way that will save the taxpayers money," said McNerney spokeswoman Julie Roginsky.

Investment Management Solution McNerney administration officials said they are confident the ruling will be upheld and that they can now move forward with plans to let the Bergen County Improvement Authority handle the project.

Investment Management Services McNerney is banking on an $8.5 million down payment for the project from the authority to balance his $347 million budget and offer a slight tax cut.

Guide Investment Stock Republicans, however, said Friday's ruling, if upheld, would be a blow to taxpayers.

Investment Manual Solution The improvement authority, said former Freeholder Chairman Anthony Cassano, does not have the Tully firm's expertise. He said Tully, has been involved in the closing of the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island.

Investment Stock The improvement authority, he said, "is going to have to reinvent the wheel and at the end of the day the taxpayers are going to get shortchanged on the environmental side and on the tax side."

Essential Investment Solution The Tully contract was touted by Schuber as the most sensible approach to turning the roughly 400 acres into a massive park in central Bergen. The Republican, who retired last year, said it also would have fulfilled a more than 50-year-old obligation at no cost to taxpayers.

Citicorp Investment Services The county was given about 1,200 acres along Overpeck Creek by four towns in the 1950s to be turned into a park. Some was, but hundreds of acres became landfills.

Fool Guide Investment Motley Ridgefield Park and Teaneck won a court settlement last year that gave the county until 2009 to turn the remaining property into parkland. That order also gave the county until this Sept. 30 to obtain 37 permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection. Failing to meet the deadline would expose the county to $2.5 million in penalties.

Fidelity Investment Services Citing that urgency, Schuber invited developers to submit proposals under a type of bidding that allows contractors to make minor changes to project specifications.

Investment Management Tully offered to cover the cost of closing the landfill, as well as the estimated $5 million cost of building the park.

Francisco Investment San In exchange, the county would give Tully the right to collect tipping fees for the disposal of fill material to cover the dumps.

Mellon Investment Services But Tully asked the county for more flexibility in the type of material it could use. Essentially, it was a request to use soil slightly more contaminated than what the state DEP would normally allow - although the DEP still would have to sign off on any fill used.

Finance Investment The county agreed, saying that it would pose no significant environmental risk and would create a greater supply of material, potentially speeding up the process.

Investment Manual Science Tully also asked for language allowing it to seek release from the contract should unforeseen problems arise. The county argued that it would have that right regardless of whether it was in the contract.

Investment Advisory Services During the hearing Friday, Montag argued that those changes were irrelevant to the county's overall goal.

Advice Investment But an attorney for Weidner - echoing the McNerney administration - said that by giving Tully that flexibility the county created an unlevel playing field.

Guide Investment Harris agreed, saying he especially was troubled by what he characterized as the "escape clause." Harris called it "a gross protection of a private party from the vagaries of the market."

Chase Investment Services By Shannon D. Harrington
Bergen Record - 4/5/2003

Topic: Solid Waste

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