Nassau right to review its bus options

Bus. Stop.

Maybe.

Nassau County made the right move Wednesday by stopping to consider its next move after the parent company of its chosen private bus operator announced its intention to get out of the transportation business.

A county spokesman, in an email, would say only that County Executive Edward Mangano was meeting with representatives from Veolia Transportation late Wednesday. "All options are on the table to ensure that bus service continues Jan. 1," spokesman Brian Nevin wrote.

That could include asking the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to keep buses running after Jan. 1, if the county needs time to determine what to do. But there's also a chance -- if Veolia can calm enough officials by week's end -- that Veolia stays in the game and assumes management of LI Bus as scheduled.

Nassau had nothing to do with a decision by Veolia's parent company, Paris-based Veolia Environnement SA, to concentrate on its core water, waste and energy business.

Private companies don't behave like government, which can be good for efficiency and other reasons -- or, as in this case, be an unexpected cause for concern.

County lawmakers had planned to approve a contract with Veolia on Monday. That changed, officials said, when a few lawmakers, Republican and Democrat, brought concerns about the proposal to the legislature's leadership.

Otherwise Nassau could have been looking, in the words of one expert, "into the dark" on whether a spinoff from the parent company could manage terms of its proposed contract.

The county still could end up peering in the dark, however.

Wednesday night, a spokesman for Peter Schmitt, the legislature's presiding officer, said that the proposed contract is scheduled for a vote on Dec. 12. "It will be up to the county executive whether the item stays or is pulled from the calendar," spokesman Edward Ward said.

Officials for the transportation company -- which has spent millions working to prepare LI Bus for private ownership -- told Mangano during a meeting Wednesday that they could honor the proposed contract, officials said.

"The news about the parent company caught everybody by surprise," said Eric Alexander, executive director of Vision Long Island, one of a coalition of groups that had concerns about the proposed contract. He said the coalition, like the county, spent Wednesday trying to ferret out information on what the planned sell-off might mean.

Alexander and other transportation advocates, some of whom oppose a private takeover, said they hoped new discussions between Nassau and the MTA could be fruitful, especially since state lawmakers are considering mitigating the hated MTA payroll tax.

According to testimony before the county legislature on Monday, Nassau would be the largest municipal bus system under contract with Veolia.

Larger than the Veolia-managed regional system in New Orleans.

The head of that authority was slated to testify favorably about Veolia on Monday. But there was no time because the first full public hearing on the proposed contract went on for hours as frustrated riders -- finally -- had the opportunity to vent.

So where are we now?

Veolia Transportation, for all of its investment, is working hard to stay in the game and on schedule. Nassau, which hoped to bolster its soft budget with money saved by going private, is hoping to stay on schedule too.

But there's a chance the county could end up knocking on the MTA's door. "We've always said we would have no problem helping if they needed help," MTA board member Mitchell Pally said Wednesday. "But the service would have to be for a fee."