By Jarrett Renshaw and Christopher Baxter/The Star-Ledger

TRENTON — In the days after Hurricane Sandy, the Christie administration was made aware of cheaper options to sweep away the storm's mess but chose to continue for about three months with a no-bid contract awarded to AshBritt, The Star-Ledger has learned.

One of AshBritt’s competitors, Ceres Environmental Services, sent a letter to the Treasury Department soon after the storm arguing taxpayers were being overcharged by Ash-Britt’s “unreasonably high” rates and offered to do the work for a fraction of the cost.

Ceres asked the state to bid out the work and warned that using an emergency contract — as it did with AshBritt — for more than three days could jeopardize federal reimbursements down the road.

“FEMA rules require reasonable and fair solicitation of contracts and pricing to qualify for reimbursement,” Ceres wrote in the Nov. 4 letter, obtained this week by The Star-Ledger. “We do not wish to see the taxpayers of New Jersey solely responsible for such unreasonably high prices.”

An attorney for AshBritt, Jared Moskowitz, gave a sarcastic rebuttal to Ceres’ veiled accusations. “I am shocked that one of my competitors wants the business and will say anything to get it,” he said.

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And a spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie, Michael Drewniak, said the governor acted swiftly in an emergency.

“We stand by our initial selection of a reliable, well-tested company whose work in New Jersey was highly praised by mayors and other officials in the state’s most heavily damaged municipalities and counties,” Drewniak said.

Christie has said he chose the Florida-based firm because of its experience after other storms, its ability to quickly respond, and the fact that it had a competitively bid contract with Connecticut that his administration could copy. The Minnesota-based Ceres, which also has experience cleaning up after storms, told New Jersey officials it had its own competitively bid contract for debris removal with Delaware, and said in its letter that it could start right away and offer much better rates.

For example, AshBritt charged $21.25 a cubic yard to collect and haul vegetative waste less than 15 miles, according to its contract with New Jersey. Ceres said in its letter that it could do the work for $8.49.

None of the 43 municipalities that chose AshBritt under the state’s contract have complained about pricing, but several that used local firms paid less than what AshBritt would have charged, according to contracts reviewed by The Star-Ledger. Christie’s contract with AshBritt has come under scrutiny after a series of Star-Ledger reports raised questions about pricing and the political muscle used to pitch its services in the state.

AshBritt suggested to former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, a close friend of Christie whose lobbying firm represents the company, that it would be right for New Jersey, Barbour has said. Christie has said Barbour recommended AshBritt, but said politics played no role.

An attorney for Ceres, Karl Dix, said the company never got a response to its Nov. 4 letter.

“Apparently, urgency, pricing or capability was not the reason why only AshBritt was solely considered for this work,” Dix said. “The state knew Nov. 4 that other sources were available at much lower prices. Why would it ignore obvious cost savings to the taxpaying public?”

Ceres was eventually selected by New Jersey as a qualified debris removal firm for some of the cleanup when the state completed a competitive bid process, about 90 days after the storm and after nearly all of the cleanup work had already been done by AshBritt.

Ceres was not the only company to serve up cheaper rates under the Delaware contract. AshBritt itself offered that state a better deal.

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The company agreed to charge $10.25 per cubic yard to collect and haul vegetative waste less than 15 miles in Delaware, compared with the $21.25 under the New Jersey contract.

Moskowitz said AshBritt considered copying the Delaware contract but did not because it would have been difficult to hire New Jersey subcontractors at those rates. He also said the Delaware contract had not been used after a storm in that state.

“We did not want to bring an untested contract to the Christie administration,” he said. “If we did, you’d be writing stories about why we didn’t bring in the Connecticut contract, which was activated and tested. We did not think we could justify the Delaware contract.”

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