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One of the companies rejected in its bid for a lucrative rail contract says the city of Honolulu improperly disqualified it from consideration.

Bombardier says Honolulu officials had committed in writing to notify the company of problems with its proposal and to give it time to correct them. Instead, the company says it learned it was disqualified the day the city announced it would award the contract to a rival.

The company filed a formal protest this week, joining Sumitomo Corp. of America, which is also fighting the city’s decision to award a $1.1 billion design, build, operate and maintain contract to Ansaldo Honolulu.

Bombardier argues the city didn’t live up to its promise to “advise offerors of weaknesses, significant weaknesses or deficiencies in their proposals” and “resolve any uncertainties concerning the proposals,” as well as provide bidders “a reasonable opportunity” to make changes to their proposals as a result.

That complaint is the thrust of Bombardier’s protest, as presented by the company’s attorneys at Alston, Hunt, Floyd and Ing.

“The City failed to use discussions with Bombardier … and thereby deprived Bombardier of fair and ‘meaningful discussions,’ as defined in long-standing public contract law standards,” the protest reads.

The issue at stake was Bombardier’s concern that the structure of the contract meant the contractor had no overall cap on liability. Bombardier says it notified the city of its concern in June 2010 by adding clarifying language in its proposal. That language ended up being the basis for Bombardier’s disqualification, the company says.

Bombardier Vice President Andrew Robbins told the City Council Transportation Committee that if Bombardier hadn’t been disqualified, the city would have found its proposal to be the “best value” for Honolulu.

In an analysis of the bidding companies’ financial documents, Civil Beat found Bombardier proposed the least expensive overall plan.

Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle this week defended the city’s pick of Ansaldo Honolulu as “value-based” in an interview with Civil Beat.

“You don’t want to buy a Ferrari, and you don’t want to buy an Edsel,” Carlisle said. “You want to get something that’s practical, works well, and saves as much money for the taxpayers without that compromising the utility and value of the product.”

The other rejected bidder, Sumitomo Corp., claims Ansaldo’s winning bid does not reflect the city’s requirement of “price realism.”

Comparison of Proposal Costs