Township Committeeman Jerry Ryan confirmed that the nullification occurred and said the Township will now have to rebid the contract.
"We're starting over on the bidding and we will see what happens," Ryan told Maplewoodian.com. "This was certainly one of the expected results and the township administration was prepared with new specs and to go out to bid again immediately."
At issue was the request for proposal that went out in late 2014 and required potential bidders to submit their bids on November 25.
That request for proposal was the second for this program after the first request in October resulted in just one bidder, F. Basso Jr. Rubbish Removal, with a bid of $499,000 that was deemed too high.
On the most recent request for proposal in November, four firms bid, with Bella Cleaning and Carting of Ridgewood offering the lowest bid at $198,240.
But the second lowest bidder, Gaeta Recycling of Paterson, claimed the lowest bid was improperly submitted and blamed the Township for failing to provide information on an addendum to the request. Gaeta's bid was $243,400.
Last month, attorneys for Gaeta and Bella appeared before the TC and sparked debate and discussion that lasted nearly two hours.
When the dust settled, the TC voted, 3-2, to award the contract to Bella, with Ryan and India Larrier voting against the proposal.
But the vote did not come easy as the committee debated numerous issues related to how the request was advertised, the fact that the date for submission was mistakenly changed and if an addendum was properly distributed to bidders.
"I want to apologize to both of you because we screwed up," De Luca told both parties at the meeting. "We made a mistake on the date and we had to issue an addendum...that has muddied the waters."
The sitution has also forced the Township to remain with bi-weekly recycling pick-up.
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