Williams’ Rejection of Trash Plant Surprises Some : Waste: But supervisor who cast crucial vote says his reservations about the project grew steadily as terms of the contract were altered.

The president of the company that wants to build a trash-burning power plant in San Marcos said Wednesday he was “dumbfounded” that San Diego County Supervisor Leon Williams voted to oppose the project that has been 10 years in the making.

But Williams said his decision to oppose the plant had been brewing for some time and shouldn’t have come as a shock to anyone.

Williams cast the swing vote on the board, which decided, 3 to 2, to reject a contract calling for Thermo Electron Energy Systems to build and operate a plant that would process about half of North County’s trash.

Company President Jerry Davis said Williams’ vote to oppose the contract “came out of the blue” because, until Tuesday, Williams was believed to be a supporter of the $320-million project.

“I was under the impression Tuesday morning that all of the questions that had been raised, especially by Supervisor Williams, had been addressed to his satisfaction,” Davis said by telephone from his home near Boston.

“I was dumbfounded, just dumbfounded--a lot of us were--by his vote,” he said.

But Williams said Wednesday that for years he had grown more and more skeptical about the terms of the contract, which called for the county to accept an increasing level of financial risk in the construction and operation of the trash plant.

Davis wasn’t the only person surprised by Williams’ vote. Opponents of the trash plant had also expected him to vote for the plant. Even Williams’ aide who had helped tutor Williams on the trash-plant contract said she was unsure until the vote came Tuesday how her boss would vote.

“Until I heard the decision, even I didn’t know which way he would go,” said Adrienne Brodeur, who has worked with Williams for more than two years and was his chief adviser on the controversial trash plant issue.

“But I can tell you, we had gone over that contract ad nauseam together, and he had some very serious concerns. He was weighing those with a feeling of responsibility and obligation to deal with the North County trash crisis.

“It’s been one of the most difficult decisions I’ve seen him have to make.”

The proposed plant would process about half of North County’s trash flow by recycling some of it, then shredding and burning most of the rest in an incinerator, which, in turn, would heat boilers that to help generate electricity for sale to San Diego Gas & Electric.

But Supervisors John MacDonald and Susan Golding, who had longstanding concerns about the terms of the contract, were joined Tuesday by Williams in saying that Thermo Electron’s contract had too many economic risks for the county.

Supervisors Brian Bilbray and George Bailey both supported the contract, saying it was the best possible way of handling the trash crisis in booming North County and that the contract, even with the risks to the county, was still a better option than no trash plant at all.

Williams said Wednesday that he had concerns about the trash plant as long as nine years ago, when he joined the board--and that his concerns have grown.

“Each (change in the contract over the years) has been to the disadvantage to the county,” Williams said.

“I’m not against the technology. I never have been. I’ve heard people say they work quite well. But I’ve always had doubts about the contract. Elements of it shift the burden to the taxpayers of San Diego County, and as that burden has grown to the increasing disadvantage of the taxpayers, I have increasingly opposed it.”

On March 4, Williams wrote a three-page memo to Norman Hickey, the chief administrative officer for the county, listing five specific concerns he had with the Thermo Electron’s proposed new contract. The county and the company had entered their original contract in 1985, but the company said it had to renegotiate it because of changing economies.

In his memo, Williams said Thermo Electron’s promise to steer 15% of its business to minority- and women-owned business enterprises was too weak, and he expressed continuing concern, based on a 1988 report by a county consultant, that Thermo Electron itself was “the weakest link” in the project’s financial assets.

Williams said he was also concerned that a dispute between SDG&E; and Thermo Electron--over the amount that the utility would have to pay for electricity generated at the plant--had not yet been resolved. The sale of electricity was key to the financial success of the project.

The supervisor’s memo also cited concern about the ultimate cost of the project, whether there would be enough garbage in North County to feed its boilers or whether the county would have to subsidize that cost, and what were the limits of the county’s liability for the project.

Brodeur said that, despite Williams’ concerns, he didn’t want to vote against the project until now because he was hoping the company would improve the terms of the contract for the county’s sake.

“But, as we’ve been renegotiating the contract, the county’s been getting a worse and worse deal,” she said. “Each time it’s come before the board, he has expressed his reservations. But he didn’t want to cut it off until he saw the final contract.”

That moment came Tuesday, and Williams voted no.

Davis said that, although he thought Williams didn’t oppose the contract, he will now try to amend it enough to please the supervisor and come back to the county with a new version.

“We think we now know what those points (of disagreement) are, and each of those will be addressed. But, as of Tuesday morning, we weren’t aware of any of those issues that Supervisor Williams was concerned about.

“We thought we’d be going home with a contract. Nothing had led us to any other conclusion.”

Davis said he will work up a separate contract with the county in which Thermo Electron will be allowed to at least build and operate the recycling component of the project. That contract, he said, would be forwarded to the supervisors next month.

It is possible that, as early as next month, a revised contract more to Williams’ liking can be ready for county review, Davis said.

“This project is far from dead,” Davis said. “But there are some things that we have to do. At least we have a better indication of specific points of concern, and we think we can address those points.”

Williams said he looks forward to Thermo Electron’s return to San Diego with a new contract proposal.

“They can if they want,” he said. “And if they do, then sure I would (listen). I don’t want to speculate what will happen. It’s entirely up to Thermo Electron how this will be resolved.”

Other officials in the county, meanwhile, say they are preparing their own action if the Thermo Electron remains unsuccessful in building a trash plant.

David Malcolm, a Chula Vista city councilman, said he asked the city attorney there on Wednesday to “take any necessary legal action to stop the diversion of North County trash to Chula Vista.”

Malcom said he is worried that, with the rejection of the trash plant and the fact that North County’s primary landfill--in San Marcos--will be full within months, North County garbage will be trucked to the county’s other primary landfills--one in his city, and the other in Sycamore Canyon near Santee.

“We believe the trash generated in North County ought to be handled by North County and not diverted to the South Bay,” Malcolm said.

San Marcos Mayor Lee Thibadeau, who had long campaigned on behalf of the trash plant, said he feels “the county did a job on us” by turning down the Thermo Electron contract. The city had counted on the trash plant as a source of millions of dollars of revenue, and had staunchly supported it while winning the ire of neighboring cities that had just as vehemently opposed it.

Times staff writer Leonard Bernstein contributed to this report.