Court Overruled on Freeway Phones : Legislative Bill Approves Lack of Competitive Bidding

The Legislature sent to the governor Friday a bill that would allow the awarding of an emergency freeway call box contract without competitive bidding.

The bill by State Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) originally dealt with technical financial requirements involving the pay-off of call box expenses.

However, in a legislative conference committee earlier this week, language was inserted into the bill that effectively undermines a San Diego court decision.

A state appellate court on Sept. 3 ruled that the San Diego Service Authority for Freeway Emergencies (SAFE) is required to follow a competitive bidding process in awarding call box contracts. The decision cast doubt on a contract awarded to Comarco Inc., an Orange County Firm. Comarco won the contract from the SAFE board by a 4-3 vote in June. Under the agreement, Comarco will install almost 1,000 solar-powered cellular call boxes on the county’s freeways.

Cubic Challenge

A rival company, San Diego-based Cubic Corp., had challenged the contract award, claiming that it should have received the contracts because its bid was about $1 million less than Comarco’s.

Although Cubic won in the San Diego court case, Cubic lost a similar bid to overturn Comarco’s contract in Orange County.

Bergeson said her bill was necessary to resolve the conflicting court rulings. SAFE officials in both counties claimed they should be allowed to pick the best system available, even if it was more expensive than others. The two rival companies offered different systems and different levels of expertise.

State Sen. William A. Craven (R-Oceanside), who authored the statewide legislation, said Friday, “It was never my intent to have competitive bidding” in the awarding of call-box contracts.