Company asks court to force transit panel to award bus contract

First Transit took the first step of an anticipated legal war by filing a complaint this week urging a District Court judge to force the Regional Transportation Commission to sign a lucrative bus contract awarded to the company and later rescinded.

The complaint argues that the RTC board essentially ignored the guidelines set forth in the request for proposals and informally awarded the bid to Veolia Transportation by extending its current contract, which is set to expire in September.

"The (board’s) decision not to complete the contract process and de facto award the contract to Veolia based on impermissible considerations favoring Veolia in violation of the RFP (request for proposals) and at the expense of Nevada taxpayers and residents shocks the conscience and is a manifest abuse of discretion," the complaint says.

In May, the transportation commission voted 4-3 to award First Transit a contract that over seven years was worth $600 million. First Transit’s bid was $50u2007million lower than the one from Veolia, the incumbent bus system operator.

First Transit attorneys took issue with what transpired after that vote.

Veolia filed a protest saying the vote was not legal because four votes does not constitute a majority on an eight-member board. Then-Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman had stepped down from the commission, and his replacement, Lois Tarkanian, did not attend the meeting. The board agreed to have the state attorney general’s office rule on the vote.

The attorney general’s office then ruled that the vote was not legal because the majority is based on the number of elected officials who sit on the commission, not the number present at a particular meeting.

In the complaint, First Transit disagreed with that opinion, saying that laws regarding the majority vote do not apply to the Regional Transportation Commission.

The company argued that the laws apply to boards made up of elected officials; commission members are appointed.

First Transit also argued that the four members voting in favor of Veolia did not meet the requirements related to voting against staff’s recommendation set forth in the request for proposals.

Board members suggested the scoring process was not fair in that price outweighed "technical qualifications." The bidding documents specifically say that the evaluation factors cannot be modified.

The complaint says the board’s refusal to sign the contract and complete the award process "in reliance on impermissible considerations wrongfully favoring Veolia constitutes an arbitrary and capricious disregard of its mandatory duties under (Nevada law)."

The commission is scheduled to reconsider the contract next month.

Contact reporter Adrienne Packer at apacker@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2904.