Board Votes Against Hiring a Contractor to Operate Landfills

Shutting the door to prospective bidders on Orange County’s lucrative landfill operations, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday decided unanimously against hiring a private contractor to operate the mammoth trash mines that generate millions of dollars annually for the county treasury.

The vote, after nearly two years of debate, reflected county officials’ concerns about allowing any private firm to gain an economic monopoly over the $20-million-per-year landfill operations and potentially shortcut environmental safeguards.

It also, county officials admit privately, demonstrated the Orange County board’s reluctance to take on any of the political baggage associated with other Southern California counties’ landfill contracts--many targeted for criticism because of the intensive lobbying, large political contributions and questionable contracting processes that went into them.

Fears of Fee Increases

County officials early in 1984 decided against allowing the Irvine Co. to take over ownership of a majority of the county’s five landfills and hire a private company to run them, expressing fears that a single company with a monopoly over trash dumping could lead to enormous increases in garbage fees, with no recourse by the county.

The door was left open, however, to contracting directly with a private firm to actually operate the landfills--a halfway measure that county officials felt would leave them with some control over trash fees and guarantee free access for all garbage haulers to the landfills, not just those trucks hired by the landfill operator.

But the county’s waste management advisory commission, citing some of the same concerns voiced over private landfill ownership, unanimously recommended against hiring a contractor to operate the landfills as well.

Specifically, the commission said private operation could lead to higher landfill fees, a potential for monopolies and racketeering and questions about environmental protections--whether a private firm would work to ensure the long-term life of the landfill and would adequately protect ground water and air quality.

County supervisors echoed those concerns in voting to suspend further consideration of private operations. “Clearly, this is not in my opinion an economic issue. It is one of long-term health and safety,” said board Chairman Thomas F. Riley.

Supervisor Bruce Nestande, who served with Riley on a committee studying the landfill issue, said tremendous improvements in the county’s own solid waste operations convinced him the county could do it better. “They have a tremendous operation over there, and one I think can compete equally well with a private operation,” he said.

But privately, many county officials say politics played an important part in the board’s decision.

Some of the largest garbage firms in the nation, including Browning Ferris Industries and Waste Management Inc., were involved in the initial lobbying effort more than a year ago to persuade supervisors to turn over the landfills to the private sector, and while lobbying efforts dwindled considerably after the board’s initial vote against allowing private ownership of the sites, many of those firms were nonetheless interested in a contract with the county.

One of those firms, R.E. Wolfe Enterprises of Kansas City, recently contracted with San Bernardino County for landfill operations, a contract that came in for heavy criticism from a grand jury, in part because it was not awarded to the low bidder. Questions have also surfaced in the company’s contract for cleaning up the Capri dump in Los Angeles County.

Heightening the behind-the-scenes debate in Orange County was the involvement of Anaheim fireworks magnate W. Patrick Moriarty, who was a partner in R.E. Wolfe Enterprises of California when the company submitted its original landfill proposal in Orange County.

Moriarty’s Guilty Plea

Moriarty recently pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges and pledged to cooperate in the investigation of politicians who allegedly received bribes from him.

Contributions from Moriarty and his associates to public officials throughout California, including several from Orange County, are part of county and federal officials’ ongoing investigation.

Several county officials said privately that controversy over the San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties’ contracts, along with the ongoing Moriarty investigation, played a part in the supervisors’ decision Monday.

“How in the hell can they go yes (on private operations) when there’s the Moriarty-Wolfe situation, when we have a grand jury investigation into Wolfe (in San Bernardino County), when there have been articles on (landfill industry) racketeering?” said one official who has played a key role in the process.

One supervisor’s aide said the Moriarty investigation was “very definitely” a factor in the board’s decision. “It’s just a time of shellshock,” he explained. “I think it (the investigation) is very high right now with everyone . . . . With the exception of Riley, I think it’s in the back of everyone’s mind.”

Nestande Received $18,000

But Nestande, who received $18,000 in campaign contributions from Moriarty associates but said he returned them when he learned of the source, said the investigation and recent controversies over landfill contracts had little influence on the board’s decision.

“I think it would be very wrong to turn the issue on Moriarty because Moriarty would not be involved and has not been involved in landfills in Orange County,” he said. “There’s politics in everything, but as far as lobbying and everything, I have a fund-raiser tonight, I called nobody (for donations) and nobody called me, and that would be the time it would show up, if anything was going to.”

Nestande said “the facts were just absolutely overwhelming” to convince the board that retaining its own operation of the landfills made the best sense.

Dan Miller, aide to Supervisor Roger Stanton, said there has been less interest on the part of private companies to run the landfills since the county itself has improved its landfill operations and since the county made it clear it would require safeguards to guard against monopolies or excessive landfill fees.

“The Moriarty thing was not a concern in this office; it may have affected other offices,” he added. “People are going to look at this as maybe another R.E. Wolfe thing (as in San Bernardino County), and they’re saying, do we really want to get involved with that, especially with all the Moriarty stuff,” he said.

Lobbying Eased Up

But Miller and most county officials said they had not been actively lobbied on the issue since about a year ago, when lobbyist Frank Michelena and state Sen. Daniel Boatwright (D-Concorde), representing Wolfe, were among a cadre of lobbyists meeting with Orange County officials on the landfill issue.

One county official said he was contacted again by Michelena on the landfill issue within the past six weeks.

Of his meeting with Boatwright, who Wolfe has said was hired specifically to prepare a bid for Orange County, Riley said: “He just presented the fact that they (Wolfe) were an honest company, that he would hope they would be considered in any bidding process, and it was just a very strong recommendation that they would be very good.”

Riley added, “Apparently, the profit margin or the possible prospective profit margin evidently makes this a very desirable and a much-sought-after contract.”

Bert Scott, manager of the county General Services Agency, said county officials estimated that landfill fees, now set at $6 per ton, would rise substantially under private ownership.

Private landfills in San Diego County are operating at $8 a ton. Wolfe, in San Bernardino County, is charging less at some landfills, more at others. Riverside County, currently negotiating for private operation of its landfills, expects to charge $7.50 to $10.50 a ton, according to the GSA’s surveys.