Committee says it’s time for transportation bids

By Harold Gwin

The committee chairman took exception to comments from the state fiscal oversight commission.

YOUNGSTOWN — The city school board’s business committee has been working on plans to reduce district transportation costs since last fall and says it’s time to put a transportation management contract out for bids.

Most of the discussion has centered around a Community Bus Services Inc. proposal that CBS says will save the district $500,000 a year off the annual $5 million transportation bill.

The district’s own staff came up with a proposal to trim about $180,000 in costs, but an anticipated pitch from a private transportation consultant has failed to materialize.

The committee, meeting Monday, instructed Tony DeNiro, assistant superintendent for school business affairs, to draw up bid specifications for a transportation management contract that it can review at a June 23 meeting.

Those specifications would have to include the same services that CBS is offering, including the installation of a digital video recording/global positioning system in district buses to track routes, the personnel and computer software to handle proposed route reductions, fleet replacement provisions and more.

It will be important that the committee is “comparing apples to apples,” DeNiro said, expressing the need for uniformity of services in proposals received.

All three committee members stressed that there will be no outsourcing of jobs. This would be a management contract only.

Michael Murphy, committee chairman, said the committee would prefer to keep the contract in the community, which would limit the number of companies that might present a contract offer.

DeNiro said the district has traditionally dealt with three local companies (including CBS), and would put out a request for proposals to those companies once the bid specifications are finalized.

The goal is to begin implementing cost savings this fall, Murphy said.

Cost-cutting has been a primary school-board goal since the state placed the city schools under fiscal emergency in November 2006 when the district announced it would run a deficit in the 2006-07 general fund budget.

That resulted in the state setting up a fiscal oversight commission to control district spending as Youngstown worked to eliminate the deficit, something school officials say will be completed in fiscal 2011.

Murphy, speaking from a prepared statement Monday, took exception to remarks made last month by the chairman of that fiscal oversight commission regarding the business committee’s efforts to reduce transportation costs.

Roger Nehls issued a public reminder that any transportation management contract would first have to be approved by the commission. The commission needs to have a clear understanding of the financial implications of such an arrangement, he said, asking why the contract wasn’t put out for competitive bids.

Murphy said his committee has always understood that any contracts would be competitively procured.

It’s up to the business committee to explore the options and come up with a proposal to present to the school board. Only after the board finds it acceptable would the oversight commission get involved, Murphy said, adding that the committee has already stated that the commission must approve any contract.

The contract hasn’t been put out for bids yet because the committee wasn’t ready for that process, he said.

“It is now necessary for the business committee to meet directly with the commission to clarify issues, roles and goals,” Murphy said.

Lock P. Beachum Sr., a business committee member, said he agreed fully with Murphy’s statement.

Committee member Jacqueline Taylor said that, although she respects Murphy’s position, there are some areas of his statement with which she disagrees. She didn’t elaborate.

gwin@vindy.com