BFI Drops Its Challenge to Rival’s Pact in Redondo : Waste: Firm says it will not fight exclusive trash hauling contract in court, nor seek a voter referendum.

Avoiding a legal showdown with the city of Redondo Beach, the trash hauler Browning-Ferris Industries has decided to drop its efforts to overturn the city’s exclusive contract with rival Western Waste Industries.

In a letter sent to 22,000 city households this week, BFI says it will not take the city to court to overturn the month-old, multimillion-dollar contract that some critics said would lead to higher trash rates and set a bad precedent by creating a virtual trash-collection monopoly in town.

A lawsuit appeared to be BFI’s only recourse if it hoped to haul trash in Redondo Beach. The city has contended that the exclusive contract could remain in effect even if voters approved a referendum that had been sought by BFI to challenge it.

“A lawsuit would be unnecessarily divisive and unacceptably costly to local taxpayers, whom we are committed to serve, not sue,” says the BFI letter, dated July 16 and signed by BFI District Manager Ron Pfeifer. “We are at an impasse with the City Council, and the only responsible action we can take at this time is to simply walk away.”

Said BFI spokesman Chip Scholz on Wednesday: “There comes a time when discretion is the better part of valor.”

The exclusive trash contract, which took effect June 6, designates Western Waste as the sole trash hauler for all the city’s single-family homes, apartments and condominiums and the vast majority of its businesses.

Redondo Beach officials welcomed the BFI move--even Councilman Stevan Colin, who agrees with BFI that the process leading up to the April 23 contract award was unfairly skewed in favor of Western Waste.

“This will spare everybody a lot of hassle and expense,” Colin said.

The sense of relief was shared by Mayor Brad Parton, who asserts the city acted properly in awarding the five-year contract. Parton theorized Wednesday that in making its decision, BFI probably had public relations in mind.

“BFI is a big, big corporate giant, and I think they felt their reputation might have been damaged if they got into a big battle,” Parton said.

A petition drive organized by BFI to challenge the contract in a public referendum gathered 5,600 signatures of city residents--far more than the 3,200 needed to get the question on the city ballot.

But the city later determined that the referendum, even if approved, would not affect the legality of the Western Waste contract, according to City Clerk John Oliver. The referendum, Oliver said, takes aim at the wrong section of the ordinance that made the contract award possible.

“Look at it this way,” Oliver said Wednesday. “They tried to find the heart of the ordinance and they only got a kidney.”

BFI apparently disagreed. Writing on behalf of the company to Redondo residents, Pfeifer said, “We have been advised by our attorneys that the (question of the referendum’s effect) could be pursued through legal channels.”

Although Pfeifer goes on to say that BFI has opted not to pursue the matter, he also says the company is ready to haul Redondo’s garbage if the city should change its mind.