COUNTYWIDE : Waste Management Criticizes Proposal

An official for Waste Management of California, a firm proposing to build a landfill in western Ventura County, on Monday blasted a proposed “bad-boy” ordinance prohibiting companies with a history of legal misconduct from doing business with the county.

Division President Mike Williams, whose company has been indicted for grand theft in Santa Clara County, said the ordinance drafted by Supervisor Maria VanderKolk is “anti-business and anti-jobs.”

VanderKolk prepared the ordinance last week in response to Waste Management’s legal woes, saying the measure was needed to protect taxpayers from companies with a history of wrongdoing.

The board will vote today on whether the county should proceed with the measure.

“This proposed ordinance is being supported by those who are part of the ‘do nothing’ way of thinking that has created the current climate of mistrust and misinformation plaguing solid waste disposal and other important issues in the county,” Williams said in a prepared statement.

“Such an ordinance would send a message to the business community that cannot be misunderstood: Ventura County is anti-business and anti-jobs at a time when county residents are suffering from increasing unemployment, business closures and business departures.”

But VanderKolk disagreed. If anything, she said, the ordinance is pro-business. “It gives people who have a history of good business a much more fair playing ground to do their bidding,” she said. “That is a much better statement.”