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AC Transit—which recently risked delay or even major overhaul of its long-planned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in order to hold off major bu-line and service cuts—is now poised to consider revamping another major district policy directive: its controversial “partnership” with Belgian bus manufacturer Van Hool. 

A resolution by AC Transit Board- 

member Elsa Ortiz which would prioritize the purchase goods manufactured in America unanimously passed the board’s three-member Finance and Audit Committee last week and is scheduled for deliberation by the full board at its Wednesday, Oct. 14, meeting. 

While AC Transit operates buses manufactured by several bus companies—including Gillig Corporation of Hayward, NewFlyer Corporation of Canada (with operations in Minnesota), and North American Bus Industries (NABI) of Hungary (with operations in Alabama)—it has put special emphasis on the purchase of Van Hools in recent years. In a tally of 630 buses in the AC Transit fleet, released by the district a year ago, 44.3 percent (279 buses) were manufactured by Van Hool, with NABI second at 31.7 percent. AC Transit has signed a major contract with Van Hool to produce 40-foot buses for the district, and, the Van Hool 60-foot articulated (two-part) buses have been projected as the backbone of the BRT fleet, whenever that is put into operation. 

It was AC Transit General Manager Rick Fernandez who unofficially labeled the bus-purchasing relationship between AC Transit and Van Hool a “partnership.” 

But Ortiz, who represents the city of Alameda and portions of Oakland and San Leandro on the AC Transit board and is not a member of the finance committee, says that the resolution is not aimed at Van Hool. Instead, she says that she wants to affect what she called the “huge unemployment rate” among local, state, and American workers. She said that while this is a general problem in the area, the change in AC Transit purchase policy is especially important following Toyota Corporation’s decision to close its New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant in Fremont. 

One possible beneficiary of the proposed new policy would be Hayward-based Gillig, which one AC Transit source says is the “only truly American bus manufacturing company,” with both company headquarters and all of its manufacturing plants located within the United States. Gillig currently supplies only a small percentage of AC Transit’s bus fleet. 

“When manufacturing products are purchased from a domestic producer, the economy is stimulated,” Ortiz said by telephone this week. She noted that “there have been a lot of concerns raised about the Van Hools throughout the years. Some of those concerns have been valid and some have been exaggerated.” But as to the effect of her buy-America resolution on the district’s partnership with Van Hool, Ortiz answered, “I don’t know. Let’s make our best effort to get American-made products to stimulate the economy. And Van Hool will just have to compete.” 

The buy-American resolution had the support in the finance committee of veteran board member Greg Harper of Emeryville and at-large director Joel Young, who was elected last November to take the seat of outgoing board member Rebecca Kaplan. While committee chair Jeff Davis voted for the resolution, he reportedly did so with “reservations.” 

One board member who had serious reservations about the Buy–American resolution was At-Large Board Member Chris Peeples, who said by telephone that the resolution raises “a number of concerns.” 

One of the concerns, Peeples said, is that the resolution “opens us up to purchasing from non-union bus manufacturers.” 

Peeples said that while Van Hool and Hayward’s Gillig—whose buses currently make up only 5.8 percent of the AC Transit fleet—are union shops, Hungary-based NABI has its parts manufactured in Alabama, “a right-to-work state.” (So-called right-to-work laws are designed to limit the ability of unions to organize and represent workers.) 

Peeples, who has been one of Van Hool’s strongest boosters on the AC Transit board, also said that Ortiz’ resolution “doesn’t recognize in the least how well we’ve been treated by Van Hool.” Peeples said that, in particular, Van Hool has “done literally everything we’ve asked them” in the creation of new-style buses or modifying existing ones to meet AC Transit’s needs. “We haven’t got that same cooperation from Gillig,” he added. “They don’t have the depth in engineering that Van Hool has to redesign buses. No American bus-manufacturing company has that.” 

Board Member Joel Young said by phone this week that he expects the resolution to be approved when it goes before the full board. 

“I support Elsa Ortiz on her efforts to allocate more of our contracting dollars to American firms,” he said. “It’s in line with our desire to try to do more business locally. I agree with Ortiz that this is an appropriate move in line with the current economic downturn in our country.” 

Young said that, if passed, the buy-American resolution will “definitely cause a shift in our relationship” with Van Hool, of which the new board member said, “in the public eye, it hasn’t been very positive for us.” Young added that “from a competitive standpoint, I think that exclusive contracts in general areas [such as AC Transit has developed with Van Hool] are not good for our bidding process. It’s in our best interests to allow competitive bidding from multiple players as a way to keep our costs under control and to make sure we’re getting the best output from our current contractors.”