Panel Dilutes Measure to Exempt Garbage Haulers From Load Limits

A controversial measure to exempt California’s garbage haulers from civil prosecution for violating some state weight limits for trucks was sidetracked Tuesday under heavy opposition from county prosecutors.

A divided Senate Transportation Committee approved the bill after stripping the measure of its most controversial provision, which would have allowed private haulers to overload their trucks by up to 4,000 pounds without paying stiff penalties. Instead, the committee agreed to conduct a one-year study before considering any exemptions.

The spirited 85-minute debate pitted the bill’s sponsors--the state’s garbage haulers--against lobbyists for the California District Attorneys Assn., who portrayed the bill as a powerful industry’s attempt to increase profits at the expense of highway safety and maintenance.

Not Sure Who Won

After the vote, however, both sides claimed victory.

“They’re apparently not willing to take the word of the district attorneys and they’re not willing to take the word of the industry,” attorney Frederick M. Pownall, a lobbyist for the trash haulers, said of the committee. “We support that. We think we’ll win.”

The amended bill, which passed the Assembly by a 49-24 vote in June, was sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee on a vote of 12-0, after two other attempts to reach a compromise became deadlocked.

The garbage haulers have lobbied intensively for the bill, claiming that the circumstances under which the current law is applied are unclear and that haulers may face severe penalties for inadvertent violations caused by rainfall or the unavailability of scales. Assemblyman Norm Waters (D-Plymouth) has carried the bill for the industry.

Opponents countered that the exemption would extract teeth from the law used to prosecute repeat violators and would remove a major deterrent to a practice that is already difficult to prevent. Further, they said, it would lead to increased destruction of streets and freeways and safety hazards because more overweight garbage vehicles would be on the road.

Effect of Exemptions

The most hotly disputed provision deleted from the bill would have established an exemption for overweight garbage trucks from the unfair competition provisions of the state Business and Professional Code unless the trucks are at least 8% heavier than the legal limit. This would allow most trucks, which weigh 51,000 to 55,000 pounds, to carry up to about 4,000 pounds more than the legal limit.

Conviction of a business engaged in unfair competition through a widespread pattern of fraudulent or unlawful practices carries a maximum civil penalty of $2,500 per infraction. In addition, prosecutors can seek an injunction that would impose even stiffer penalties for subsequent offenses.

The state Motor Vehicle Code also imposes lesser fines for violation of the weight limitations. Under the bill proposed by the waste haulers, fines for trucks that are 2,000 to 4,000 pounds overweight would be doubled, from a range of $20-$125 to $40-$250 for each infraction. The Transportation Committee also deleted this provision from the bill.

The study called for by the committee would be conducted by the legislative analyst’s office next year. The study would determine whether the garbage haulers should receive an exemption from prosecution under the Business and Professional Code and, if so, the amount they should be allowed to carry over the legal limit without violating the code.

Repeat Violations

The amended bill also retained a provision that would subject city and county waste haulers to prosecution under the unfair competition prohibition for recurrent weight violations. Public garbage carriers are currently exempted from this law.

Gary S. Mullen, executive director of the California District Attorneys Assn., told the Senate transportation panel and a crowded Capitol hearing room that only six cases involving allegations of unfair business practices have been prosecuted against waste haulers statewide. He said that judgments were reached against three companies and that three cases are pending.

Browning-Ferris Industries, the nation’s second-largest trash hauler, was convicted of 13,000 weight violations after 40% of its trucks were found to be overweight by an average of 1.3 tons, Mullen said.