Citing a technical error, the Napa County Transportation and Planning Agency has rescinded a contract that would have installed a new company to run the VINE and Vine Go transit systems starting July 1.

In March, the NCTPA board picked MV Transportation of Fairfield to take over the Napa Valley’s transit services, ousting Veolia Transportation, which had operated the VINE for 17 years.

Subsequently, NCTPA staff discovered a procedural error that occurred during the competitive bid process. This error invalidated the choice of MV Transportation, Jim Leddy, NCTPA’s executive director, said Wednesday.

This error will require NCTPA to rebid the contract. In the meantime, Veolia has agreed to operate the VINE, Vine-Go and the shuttles in American Canyon, Yountville, St. Helena and Calistoga for another year, Leddy said.

“Nothing will change. Everything will stay the same,” said Rick Leavitt, Veolia’s local general manger.

Veolia had grumbled in March that NCTPA staff had not followed the bid process “to the letter,” but had accepted the loss of the Napa contract, Ron Bushman, Veolia’s regional vice president, said Wednesday.

Veolia had offered to run local transit services for one more year at no increase in price if NCTPA would rebid the contract, but this offer was refused.

Veolia officials were surprised when NCTPA called last week. “They said, ‘Does your offer still stand to continue for one year?’ We said certainly,” Bushman said.

“We’re going to do the best job we can possibly do,” Bushman said. “This gives us a second chance to do the job they want done.”

When the NCTPA board of directors picked MV over Veolia, officials praised Veolia for doing a good job, but said MV might do a better job at a lower cost.

The board, which is composed of elected officials from the cities and Napa County, was nearly unanimous in supporting staff’s recommendation to select MV. Only Napa Mayor Jill Techel voted no, saying that Veolia had done a good job.

If MV had taken over July 1, all of Veolia’s local employees except for general manager Leavitt likely would have been picked up by the new operator, Bushman said.

MV released a statement Thursday saying that it was disappointed by the turn of events, but supported NCTPA’s decision.

“We believe having a proper bidding process is paramount to the confidence of the public in the competitive bidding system,” said Nikki Frenney, a company spokesperson.

“We will again participate in the revised bidding procedure that occurs in the near future and we are confident our company’s proposal will again be ranked in the best interest of Napa County’s residents and taxpayers.”

The error occurred in February when NCTPA staff asked consumer groups to evaluate the two bidders before doing its own in-house scoring, Leddy said.

This was in violation of the agency’s request for proposals and thus did not follow federal bid guidelines, Leddy said.

Staff discovered this error at the “eleventh hour” during a review of the bid process, Leddy said. Neither of the bidders had identified this error as a source of concern, he said.

The error occurred, in part, because NCTPA “has a very lean staff. We were also down a position,” Leddy said.

In going through the bid process a second time, NCTPA will hire a consultant to make sure all the rules are followed, Leddy said.