Legislature Overrides County Executive Veto

The Rockland County Legislature easily overrode County Executive C. Scott’s Vanderhoef’s veto of the bus contract they approved on March 5. By a vote of 16 in favor and one abstention, the veto was overridden at Tuesday’s meeting.

The resolution passed by the legislators directed the county executive and county attorney’s office comply with the court order to award the contract for operating Transport of Rockland and Tappan Zee Express bus service to the lowest bidder, Brega Transport Corp. According to the resolution, the legislature did not authorize the county attorney, county executive or outside counsel to file an appeal of the judge’s decision.

The five-year contract for bus service and maintenance has been in dispute and in court since September 2010 over the bidding process and requests for proposals. The contracts with those providers, Hudson Transit Lines, Rockland Transit Corp. and Hudson Transit Corporation originally expired in early 2011 and have been extended numerous times since then. Earlier this month the legislature voted to extend the contracts with the current providers of the two bus services for three months.