MISSION VIEJO : Mailer Criticizes Garbage Contract

The controversy over the city’s garbage-removal contract grew hotter last week when a consultant for a waste-hauling firm sent a mailer urging residents to pressure the City Council to allow competitive bidding for the trash franchise.

The mailer, sent by Ellis/Hart Associates on behalf of Western Waste Industries of Irvine, criticizes a recent City Council decision not to allow competitive bids for the residential trash-collection contract.

The mailer included a clip-out “trash tax protest card” addressed to the council that said, “I . . . believe that the free enterprise system demands that before you raise our taxes, you require competitive bidding. I will remember this trash tax increase on election day.”

David Ellis, chief executive officer of the political consulting firm, said his client is protesting a 3-2 council decision last month to award an exclusive contract to Waste Management Inc. of Irvine, which has held the franchise in Mission Viejo for about 20 years.

“Competition in trash hauling will guarantee the best rates and service,” he said. “Right now, there is no competition in Mission Viejo. All we’re asking for is a chance to compete.”

On Monday, Ellis said he had received more than 1,000 cards. Another mailer is scheduled to be mailed Thursday, asking residents to attend next Monday’s council meeting, at which members will make a final decision on awarding the contract to Waste Management.

Some members of the council denounced the mailer, calling it a political move aimed at Councilman Norman P. Murray, the only council member running for reelection in November.

Murray was one of three council members, along with Victoria C. Jaffe and William S. Craycraft, who voted last month in favor of Waste Management.

“I think it’s very sad that Mission Viejo has been chosen as the pawn for trash wars,” Jaffe said. “This is a throwback to the ‘50s, when intimidation and threats were commonplace between trash companies.”

Murray called the mailer “a blatant attempt to pressure me prior to my vote. If there is a way for Western to sway me, this isn’t the way to do it.”

Mayor Christian W. Keena, who favors competitive bidding for the franchise, said the mailer was a “regrettable move.”

But pointing to the Waste Management contract, which at $11.85 per household is the highest among Orange County cities, Keena said that many citizens “are absolutely shocked about the way we do business, about the fact that we would have higher rates.”

City Manager Fred Sorsabal has defended the contract, saying that the new deal pays for several additional services not contained in the city’s previous pact with Waste Management.