The go well with alleges the brand new public sale was contract was illegally awarded and needs to be voided.
Chad Rachman/NY Submit
Huge Apple taxpayers will likely be taken for a $6 million trip as a result of the town illegally employed a brand new agency — which expenses 60 % greater than its predecessor — to promote surplus autos, based on a brand new lawsuit.
On-line auctioneer PropertyRoom.com alleges that blunders by the Division of Citywide Administrative Companies left them at the hours of darkness that companies it supplied for almost 20 years had been turned over to a rival agency final 12 months.
In December, DCAS changed PropertyRoom and awarded rival Insurance coverage Auto Auctions Corp. a five-year $5.93 million contract.
Nevertheless, the go well with filed in Manhattan Supreme Court docket contends the town will now be paying out an extra $5.95 million over the size of the contract in “purchaser’s premium” expenses, as a result of IAA’s charges for this cost are larger than PropertyRoom’s.
In an April court docket affidavit, PropertyRoom CEO Aaron Thompson insisted the town will lose further cash beneath the brand new contract as a result of his agency’s web site reaches many extra potential consumers than his competitor.
“Much less demand, and fewer consumers, leads to decrease gross sales costs for auctioned property, which leads to much less cash returning to the town following the sale,” he wrote.
Based mostly on a fleet discount plan licensed by former Mayor Invoice de Blasio, the change to IAA will price DCAS the additional $5.95 million over 5 years, the go well with alleges.
Nevertheless, Thompson instructed The Submit he believes the IAA contract may doubtlessly price the town tens of millions of dollars extra as a result of Mayor Eric Adams has pledged to make extra cuts to the nation’s largest municipal fleet than what de Blasio proposed — all whereas inheriting the IAA contract from the earlier administration.
“Mayor Adams mustn't use this misguided contract for his fleet discount plan,” stated Thompson. “It’s a waste of taxpayer cash.”
Adams solely instructed The Submit in January he needs to slash the fleet to a “naked bones minimal,” which incorporates dropping it to at the very least ranges seen throughout Michael Bloomberg’s time as mayor almost a decade in the past, when it was beneath 26,000 autos.
Adams has already introduced plans to lower 855 autos from the fleet of almost 30,000 in the course of the subsequent fiscal 12 months starting July 1.
The go well with alleges the contract was illegally awarded and, subsequently, needs to be voided and rebid.
It accuses DCAS of botching public notices by wrongly giving out 4 totally different PIN numbers for potential bidders to trace the contract, which was first marketed in 2019.
Usually, a single PIN is used per procurement. PropertyRoom alleges the confusion led it to consider DCAS wasn’t instantly transferring forward with a brand new pact — and that it could at the very least be briefly retained because it has in previous years.
Nevertheless, metropolis attorneys stated the lawsuit is meritless — particularly since PropertyRoom by no means submitted a bid.
“Their claims are baseless and we’ve moved to dismiss the case,” a metropolis Legislation Division spokesman stated.
“How would the town know that it could be paying extra if PropertyRoom by no means submitted a proposal? We stand by the contract course of, which was correct and in compliance with all procurement legal guidelines.”
Legal professionals for IAA didn't return messages, however they filed authorized papers final month looking for to dismiss the go well with that insisted PropertyRoom’s allegations had been meritless.
Post a Comment