AshBritt's 'Ambiguous' Contract Resulted in Extra Charges, Report Says

AshBritt, Inc., the firm hired by the state to haul debris after Superstorm Sandy, benefited from an “ambiguous” contract that resulted in at least tens of thousands in extra charges, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Ocean County Administrator Carl Block handed the Freeholders a thick report at Wednesday’s pre-board meeting. The report, done by state-hired monitor The Louis Berger Group, Inc., reviews the mileage billed to Ocean County by AshBritt.

“The director contacted me after some articles had been written about the clean up efforts,” Block said. Freeholder Director John P. Kelly had asked for a report to be done breaking down the process of debris hauling as well as the charges in relation to distance.

“Discrepancies” had been found in AshBritt’s charges, the report from Louis Berger, Inc. says.

“When AshBritt began submittal of its invoices to Louis Berger, a discrepancy in the mileage was noted: AshBritt was consistently billing for approximately 2.5 miles in excess of what Louis Berger had identified as the shortest route,” the report says.

The AshBritt contract, which was taken from a deal negotiated with Connecticut in 2008, did not require trucks to take a specific route. Louis Berger instructed AshBritt to take the shortest possible route to and from the various sites. Odometer readings, a GPS, Google Maps and Map Quest were used to monitor mileage.

AshBritt’s invoices accounted for the total mileage between the temporary debris removal areas (TDMAs), which were selected by the 14 municipalities participating in Ocean County’s shared service agreement, and the landfill-tipping site, rather than just to the gate of the landfill as Louis Berger anticipated, the report says.

Another firm, Arcadis Inc. monitored debris removal from Bay Head. As a courtesy, Arcadis Inc. provided Louis Berger and the county with details on the mileage it monitored. The reports were within tenths of a mile to AshBritt’s invoices, Block said. The firm had also included distance within the landfill.

“With three national firms that all calculated the same way, all going inside the landfill, one would assume that in fact is the correct way,” Block said. “The distances seem to be well within the ranges.”

Louis Berger found AshBritt’s interpretation was reasonable, the report says. 

Another discrepancy was found in travel distances, Block said.

Payment is based on mileage brackets: 0-15 miles, 16-30 miles, 31-60 miles and so on, the report says, calling the contract “ambiguous on several key points.” Debris hauled 0-15 miles is charged at a lower rate than debris hauled 16-30 miles. The contract did not establish payment for debris hauled between 15.1 and 15.9 miles.

“The contract doesn’t address a couple gaps in there. That’s one of them,” Block said.

AshBritt charged 30 percent more for trips longer than 16 miles, according to The Record.

Debris hauled from the Bay Head TDMA, Louis Berger monitored that site during the month of December, was calculated at 15.8 miles. The total difference in cost for debris hauled during that time frame was less than $30,000.

The “mileage ambiguity” in Bay Head has been “flagged,” Louis Berger said. The issue will be resolved with the governing authorities, including FEMA, and reconciled during the final project closeout process.

There were also instances in which the additional 2.5 miles from the gate of the County Landfill to the tipping location caused the cost to jump from the 0-15 mile bracket to the 16-30 mile bracket, the report says.

AshBritt made hundreds of trips to Ocean County’s landfill in Manchester, The Record reported. The contractor was credited for driving 2.5 miles within the landfill. The extra mileage extended the trip beyond the 16-mile mark. As a result, AshBritt charged some towns more than $500,000.

In February, the Freeholders approved a $7.5 million payment to AshBritt for storm debris removal. The Freeholders also approved a $45 million emergency appropriation for debris removal in March. Ineligible charges will be deducted from future payments to AshBritt, Block said.

“Nobody is fully paid because we haven’t reconciled all the bills, number one. Number two, we’re not going to pay 100 percent out yet until this process and everything is picked up and reconciled,” Block said. “We’ll go back and look at everything and make sure everything that needs to be adjusted is done.”

Bills issued at a higher rate related to the Bay Head TDMA will be adjusted, Block ensured.

"They'll be done at the accounting at the end," he said.

Kelly originally asked for the report to determine “who’s right and who’s wrong,” he said. The county will be working with AshBritt to come to an agreement on the appropriate payment.

An email from March included in Louis Berger’s report shows the additional 2.4 miles of hauling distance incurred within the Ocean County Landfill from the Route 70 entrance of the facility to the where the material was tipped. AshBritt provided its routing matrix to validate the mileages.

“If you are unable to validate mileages listed, kindly revert back with your finds and we will work through to resolution,” Dow Knight of AshBritt said in the email.

Two investigators from the state Comptroller’s Office were present at the Freeholders pre-board meeting. Last week, Gov. Chris Christie announced that the state would be investigating AshBritt’s charges.

“We were sent the letter from the governor asking us to investigate,” said Pete McAleer spokesman for the Office of the State Comptroller. “We don’t comment on pending investigations.”

Christie has faced criticism for the $150 million no-bid contract with AshBritt. The governor opted to use AshBritt, who has a history of political donations in addition to a payroll that includes Republican Chairman of Ocean County George Gilmore. But the decision was justified as a way to expedite the post-Sandy cleanup by utilizing an existing contract with Connecticut and ultimately forgoing competitive bidding.

The matter came under criticism in Belmar, where Mayor Matt Doherty's wife works as a subcontracted consultant for a firm associated with the contract. Doherty recused himself from any AshBritt vote.