No Pool For You: Camp Trips Cancelled After Bus Contract Dispute

As a heat wave pushed the mercury toward the 100-degree mark for the second straight day Wednesday, Port Chester campers got some bad news -- they weren't going to the pool.

The reason? Recreation staff called off the buses following a dispute over transportation contracts at the previous night's village board meeting.

Several trustees were not happy when they were asked to approve a $39,000 bus contract the day before the summer camp's first scheduled field trip, and a contentious debate that started at the new board's first meeting spilled over to a follow-up meeting on the same issue Wednesday night.

Republican Saverio "Sam" Terenzi blasted Recreation Commissioner Thomas Hroncich, accusing Hroncich of delegating contracts to his "minions," leaving the board without time to choose between bids. Only one bus company submitted a complete bid for all summer field trips, while three others offered partial bids.

When the board voted against the complete bid on Tuesday night, the recreation department was left without approval for a contract and canceled the bus trips. That meant some 175 campers didn't get to swim during Wednesday's sweltering heat, and it also left 10 campers from Port Chester's Special Citizens Camp stranded without transportation for a scheduled outing to ride a Connecticut river boat.

"That was a very dumb call, in my opinion," Terenzi told Hroncich. "You created such havoc in this community."

Terenzi said he'd heard from an angry acquaintance after a bus didn't show up: "His stepson, a retarded child, was waiting on the porch today."

Others chose different words to express their frustration.

"I know last night I agreed to pass this, but I feel so disgusted and aggravated already," said Democrat Luis Marino. "We've got hundreds of kids, and especially on a hot day ... we need to make communication better."

In the end, the board agreed to approve the same $39,000 contract it rejected Tuesday night. That contract was $14,000 more than the next-highest bid, but several board members wondered whether that was because the other bids didn't cover every date and field trip in the village's proposed contract.

That question was never definitively answered amid the debate. At Tuesday's meeting, the village clerk said the contract had been sent to 19 bus companies, and only four responded.

For the six trustees, who took office the night before while listening to several impassioned pleas to control spending, there was palpable frustration -- on the very first occasion when they could have saved the village money, they found themselves short on time and options.

"What I got last night was horrible," said Republican Joe Kenner. "I'm going to tell you that straight up. I couldn't vote for it."

Noting the camp's activities and schedule don't change much from year to year, Kenner said the village's managers should bring bids to the board months -- not days -- ahead of time. At a time when most local governments are scrounging to cover costs, village government should have more time to analyze proposed contracts and look for efficiencies, he said: "$40,000 is significant. It's a head count in some departments."

"If it happens again," he said, "I'm telling you, you're going to have another no vote from me."

As the talks turned to solutions, officials said they'd like to centralize responsibility for bids and contracts. The village doesn't have formal rules specifying who should handle contracts. That means clerks, assistants and other staffers -- the "minions" Terenzi mentioned -- are often tasked with that work, and staffers aren't always aware of how other departments in village government handle bids.

"This, I believe, is a symptom of a larger problem," said Mayor Dennis Pilla, urging more uniformity in the bidding process. "And if you look at the procurement process in general, and how it's segmented...there really is no purchasing expertise, no disrespect to any of the staff involved in these things."

After the two camp trips were cancelled Wednesday, camp directors were ordered to send notes home to parents explaining what happened. Organizers of the Special Citizens Camp will try to reschedule their riverboat trip, and kids at the day camp will have to wait until Friday to swim at the Saxon Woods pool in White Plains.

As for Hroncich, who was at the receiving end of Terenzi's anger on two consecutive nights, there wasn't much to say. Asked how he felt about the heated exchanges, he remained impassive.

"He's a trustee," Hroncich said. "He has his opinion, and everyone is entitled to their opinion."