#NYC exploring public takeover of school buses — with one company linked to de Blasio

The city has quietly inked a $800,000 contract with a consultancy firm to explore a public takeover of private school bus companies– including one with ties to Mayor de Blasio, The Post has learned.

TransPar Group, Inc. won the contract in late June, according to minutes from the city’s Economic Development Corporation.

“TransPar Group, Inc. or an affiliated entity will help develop and implement a transportation planning and management strategy for Department of Education’s school bus fleet,” the minutes say.

“This will include providing support for school bus acquisition, including due diligence; developing the operation of a newly created not-for-profit which will acquire and operate assets of current school bus operating companies; defining the roles and responsibilities of DOE and the not-for-profit; and supporting the not-for-profit in succession planning to successfully run field operation.”

The city currently outsources all of its school bus operations.

Sources told The Post the city is in secret negotiations protected by non-disclosure agreements to purchase three school bus companies including one with ties to the mayor– and a multimillion dollar pension liability.

Reliant Transportation’s CEO Alex Lodde donated $100,000 to an upstate Democratic committee as part of the mayor’s controversial effort to put Dems in control of the state Senate in 2014.

Reliant later won tens of millions of payments from the city for employee wages slashed by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

An insider said the purchase of Reliant would stick the city with a $150 million pension liability without any evident benefits.

“It’s the age-old notion of bureaucracies think they can run it better themselves than private companies,” the source said.

In May the city stopped hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to bus companies that sat idle during the coronavirus-induced shutdown of public schools.

When asked about the negotiations City Hall spokeswoman Laura Feyer said, “We can’t comment on Reliant at this time.”

The city is also eyeing a purchase of at least one other firm– GVC LTD., sources said.

Reps for the two companies did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

A spokeswoman for a third company, National Express LLC, said her firm was “engaged in conversations earlier in the year regarding a subsidiary in the area,” but those talks ended.

Michael Cordiello, president of the school bus drivers union Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181, said he’s not involved in the talks and is still negotiating a contract with Reliant.

“Doesn’t matter who signs the checks what matters is the conditions of employment,” Cordiello said.

“We’re used to different people private or public running the work so I don’t have a concern about that. I have a concern about what will be the terms and conditions of employment for my members,” he said.