Marlboro does not want to deal with truck firm
BY TALI ISRAELI
Staff Writer

MARLBORO — The Township Council has rejected a bid to purchase dump trucks from a company that was previously alleged to have been involved in corrupt activity.

On Dec. 7 a contract was awarded to Freedom International Trucks Inc. for the purchase of two dump trucks at a cost of $255,650.

But Freedom International Trucks did not submit the lowest bid Marlboro received. According to the resolution that awarded the contract, Robert H. Hoover and Sons Inc., the lowest bidder at $211,810, requested that its bid be withdrawn due to an error in its tabulation.

The second lowest bid at $247,054 was from Cambria Truck Center. The firm’s bid was rejected as a noncompliant bid due to the company’s failure to conform to the bid specifications, according to the resolution.

International Trucks of Central Jersey put in a bid for $253,790, which was $1,860 lower than the bid submitted by Freedom International Trucks.

However, according to Township Attorney Andrew Bayer, the administra-tion and Mayor Robert Kleinberg had expressed concern with International Trucks of Central Jersey because former employees of the company have been indicted on charges of corruption involving central New Jersey municipalities.

According to the council’s resolution, International Trucks of Central Jersey has failed to demonstrate its moral integrity, operating capacity and financial capacity due to the recent 19-count federal indictment of the company’s co-owners and a salesman.

The charges included attempting to defraud local governments of honest services, money and property; offering and giving corrupt payments; money laundering; and conspiracy to money launder.

Bayer said Marlboro representatives explored the possibility of corruption being a legal reason to reject the bid.

According to the Local Public Con-tracts Law, a responsible bidder is a company that has “moral integrity.” Bayer said this provision could be a mechanism by which the governing body could reject the bid.

In a letter from Arnold I. Budin, the attorney representing International Trucks of Central Jersey, his client must be provided the opportunity to defend any asserted basis for disqualification from being the lowest responsible bidder.

Bayer said he invited Budin and representatives of the company to the council meeting to make a presentation to the governing body on this matter but they were not available to attend.

Budin did not return a call seeking comment on this matter.

Business Administrator Judith Tier-nan said there was another town in Monmouth County that awarded a bid to this company and there was such uproar from the community that officials never took possession of the trucks.

Kleinberg said he believes it would be irresponsible to deal with companies that are under federal indictment.