LEWISBURG — There are allegations of a conspiracy to manipulate voting in the SEDA-COG Joint Rail Authority’s process to award a new operating contract. An investigation by WKOK has revealed JRA representatives from Northumberland and Montour Counties apparently colluded to ensure incumbent operator North Shore Railroad of Northumberland would not win the new contract.
Board members were to use a prescribed process to rate the three operating proposals and individuals with knowledge of the final scores confirmed to WKOK that Don Purcell, Stephen Bridy and Tom Herman each ranked North Shore last in the second phase of the bidding process. At least one of the three gave North Shore a raw score of zero out of 100.
Procedures established by the authority required the ten scoring board members to complete their rankings independently and submit them to JRA executive director Jeff Stover, by July 2, 2015. Herman, Purcell and Bridy each submitted their scores late on July 8 after all other members’ scores had been opened and tallied.
After failing to award an operating contract in July 2015 to the apparent high scorer, Carload Express, the authority filed suit in Clinton County to have a judge determine whether their vote was valid. According to court documents, North Shore subpoenaed cell phone records for Purcell, Bridy and JRA employee Kay Aikey. Aikey, as program assistant for the authority, was present when scores were tallied.
North Shore claims the three had contact with each other at critical times in the scoring process. The specific nature of their contact was the subject of depositions conducted in late July of this year. Jeb Stotter, Vice President and COO of North Shore declined to comment on the allegations as litigation is ongoing.
WKOK has also learned that Purcell and Herman approached at least one other authority board member asking him to rank North Shore last. That board member declined to do so and informed Stover of the incident.
When asked about the allegations, JRA chairman Jerry Walls said, “It is premature to draw any conclusions as to what happened.” If, through the deposition process evidence is found of a “solid, documentable problem,” Walls said the authority could convene discussions to examine its options.
The JRA’s Code of Conduct calls on staff and board members to “uphold the public trust.” Any alleged violation of the code is referred to the Governance Committee which may, after review, send the matter to the full board for discussion. In the case of violations by board members, the matter can be referred to the appropriate county commissioners for possible removal from the JRA board.
