Solid-Waste Industry Treated Unfairly

I read with interest the three-part series on garbage collection, recycling and disposal (“Dollar Politics: The Rising Cost of Garbage,” March 29-31). These stories seem to be trying through innuendo to find something dishonest or illegal in the way organizations involved in the solid-waste industry conduct their day-to-day activities. You were able to point out two instances in which rubbish haulers and disposers were found guilty of transgressions, but that is far too little to convict an industry of wrongdoing.

Yes, some of us do take an interest in our communities. We engage in the political process, we make political contributions, we contribute according to our ability to do so, and we engage our elected officials in dialogue in many ways and in many forms. This is the system, and until the system is changed or someone is found trying to beat the system, then those operating legally should not be innuendo-smeared.

It seems to me that The Times should have been lavish in its praise of Bill and Vince Taormina. All cities in the state should be so lucky as to have citizens like the Taorminas--proud of their roots in a city and willing to put back into that community some of the profits earned there.

Political contributions are a part of the system, and making them should not be looked at as a means of gaining some favor. It just could be that donors make contributions because they feel that the person they are making the contributions to is qualified, hard-working and willing to make hard choices for the benefit of society in general.

I know you didn’t intend it to come out the way it did, but I think that, by and large, you made the solid-waste industry look pretty good. You showed its organizations to be good citizens, hard-working, responsible and well-run, providing a high degree of excellence in their service to the citizens of Orange County.

JOHN E. GALLAGHER

Orange