Firm Hopes Ads Will Build Support for Weldon Canyon Landfill

James Jevens has become a prime-time player in cable television ads airing throughout western Ventura County.

Walking along a beach in Ventura, the project manager of the proposed Weldon Canyon landfill tells television viewers that the shortage of landfill space will turn into a crisis unless his company, Waste Management of North America Inc., can open its landfill near Ojai.

The commercial is one of four television spots and a newspaper ad in a three-week-old publicity campaign designed to win public support for the landfill.

The television ads, broadcast about five times a day, will continue through the first week of April, Jevens said. The ad campaign coincides with a series of public hearings on an environmental study of the landfill site, located east of California 33 and north of Canada Larga Road near Ojai.

The second in the series of hearings is scheduled for 7:30 tonight at the Oak View Community Center.

Waste Management plans to run a new set of ads through this fall, when the Ventura County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to make a final decision on the project, Jevens said.

Although county officials say the decision to open a landfill at Weldon Canyon will be based primarily on the project’s merits, Jevens believes that public perception of the project and the company will also play a role.

“The supervisors need to know what their constituents think and so we are urging the constituents to think,” he said. One commercial urges viewers to closely examine a county environmental study of the proposed landfill.

Such publicity campaigns are common for Waste Management, Jevens said. “It’s traditionally done,” he said. “We’ve generally done one or all forms of media.”

Ojai Mayor Nina Shelley, a vocal opponent of the landfill who believes that the project will generate pollution and traffic for the Ojai Valley, said Waste Management’s strategy may have some success with Ventura County residents.

“The general public doesn’t have time or interest to involve themselves in studying the issues,” she said. “My guess is that there will be some people who are not active who may be swayed.”

Supervisor John K. Flynn said he has not seen the commercials but understands Waste Management’s strategy. “Sometimes private companies involved with garbage have a hard time with their image,” he said. “Waste Management is trying to change that.”

But the company’s public image problems go much further than that.

Waste Management of North America Inc. is a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc. of Oak Brook, Ill. Over the past four years, several subsidiaries of the parent company have been the subject of federal and state antitrust investigations across the country.

One subsidiary was convicted of price fixing in 1987 in southern Florida and settled two related civil antitrust cases with the state of Florida. In August, 1988, another subsidiary was convicted of price fixing in Toledo, Ohio.

The charges so worried Supervisor Maggie Erickson Kildee that she asked Ventura County Chief Administrator Richard Wittenberg in a June, 1987, memo to investigate Waste Management’s operations in Ventura County.

“I am very concerned about several recent newspaper articles regarding Waste Management Inc.,” she said in the letter. “Many of my constituents have asked me why the county is dealing with such a company.”

Wittenberg said last week that he found no wrongdoing in the company’s Ventura County operations, but added, “My answer was noncommittal. I’m not sure what kind of connection there was with the East Coast companies and the group here.”

Because of additional calls and letters from Ojai residents, Kildee said she asked the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department last week to once again investigate Waste Management’s California operations.

“Many of the people of Ojai are still very, very concerned,” Kildee said. “They are more concerned about whether Waste Management is a viable firm because of the convictions against the parent firm.”

Jevens and other Waste Management officials have repeatedly said that any wrongdoing committed by affiliated companies should not reflect on Waste Management’s operations in Ventura County.

Since 1983, Waste Management has operated a landfill in Simi Valley with few complaints. “We haven’t been able to find a problem with them in this county,” said Kay Martin, the county’s solid waste manager.

Despite the clean record in Ventura County, Waste Management has received a cold reception from area environmentalists, especially those in Ojai.

In January, the Ojai Valley Greens held a public meeting to “discuss the history, business practices and safety record of Waste Management Inc.”

Among the guest speakers was Margie Kelly, a spokeswoman for Greenpeace, who blasted Waste Management for a record of questionable business practices. According to a published report, Kelly urged the group of about 250 people not to let Waste Management gain a foothold in their community.

Jevens said the commercials and newspaper ads are designed to get more residents interested in the landfill to balance out “the small, vocal splinter group” that is expected to speak against the project when it comes before the Board of Supervisors.

Although Shelley said the commercials may influence some county residents, Ojai residents will not be easily won over.

“Jevens is making a mistake if he believes there isn’t strength here,” she said. “Maybe Jevens sees the surface, but he doesn’t see the depth.”