Brick to stay with current electrical firm BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer BRICK TOWNSHIP - - A contractor whose business went bankrupt because of problems with the state Schools Construction Corp. can't bid on any Brick projects for the next two years. Richard Janson, Little Egg Harbor, asked Township Council members at the Aug. 7 council meeting to reverse an earlier decision that disqualified his new bid for the township electrical services contract. The council awarded Janson's now-defunct TEC Electric the contract back in January. But Janson was forced to declare bankruptcy when the state failed to pay him for electrical work done on public schools, he said. "The outside circumstances were, in a word, the inability of the state of New Jersey to pay their bills," Janson told the council. "When we went bankrupt, we had almost $12 million of school construction work." Janson came in as the lowest bidder recently for the new contract. But he was later disqualified because of the previous problems. His attorney, John D. Sontz, argued that the township did not have to disqualify Janson from rebidding on the contract that was once his, under his new company, DR&J Electric. "The township is not required to disqualify a bidder, even if there is a finding of negative experience," Janson told the council. "Bidders are not just always big entities. Sometimes they are just people trying to work. This was no intentional act. TEC's failure to perform was beyond its control." The council awarded a new two-year contract to Bahr & Sons, Bayville, on July 11. Bahr & Sons did emergency work for the township after TEC went bankrupt and had been the township's electrical contractor for more than 10 years before losing out on the bid to TEC earlier this year. Township Attorney Jean Cipriani and council members sympathized with Janson's situation. But the bankruptcy and loss of services forced the township to go out to bid on an emergency basis for an electrician, Cipriani said. "Your services had been admirable up to this point," she said. "There was no suggestion it was an intentional action on your part. But because everything was done in such a rushed way, we had no electrical services and were going on an ad hoc emergency basis, which we're not permitted to do any longer than we absolutely have to." State law allows a municipality to disqualify a company from providing services for up to five years. Janson's new company had been disqualified from bidding for a period of one year after the latest bid was awarded. "Right now you are a disqualified bidder," Cipriani told Janson. "Every municipality in the state can sympathize with any difficulties in getting money from the state. But the township did incur some substantial hardship and expense." Sontz also argued the council could waive the new contract with Bahr & Sons. "Courts do it all the time," he said. "Contracts are awarded, they are unawarded. I think a strong argument can be made it never should have been awarded." But Cipriani disagreed. "To do so may involve further expense for the township, not less," she said.