Santa Ana Expected to Seek Trash-Hauling Contract Bids : Services: Majority of City Council members say they want to solicit competitive offers to determine if longtime contractor is the best deal.

For the first time in the 30-year history of the city’s trash hauling contract, City Council members on Monday are expected to set aside their staff’s recommendation to renew an agreement with the longtime contractor and vote to seek competitive bids.

While council members said in separate interviews that they have received very few complaints about the quality of the service provided by Great Western Reclamation, a majority said they would vote to seek bids from other contractors to find out if Great Western is offering the best possible deal for the city.

The current contract--valued at $18 million to $20 million a year and scheduled to terminate June 30--has come under criticism in recent months, partly because commercial customers, by far, pay the highest rates in the county.

Critics have also charged that while residential rates were on par with other cities, some basic services such as recycling are not provided.

In the five-year renewal recommended by the city staff, commercial customers would see their rates drop between 15% and 19%, depending on the type of service they use. Residential rates would rise next July from the current monthly fee of $11.86 to $12.50, but fees for apartment dwellers would not go up immediately. Also, recycling would be phased in over an 18-month period beginning next month.

“Staying with any company for 30 years without going out to bid is a long time,” said Councilwoman Lisa Mills.

The staff recommendation is scheduled for a vote at the first business meeting of the new council, which includes three new members--Mills, Thomas E. Lutz, and Ted R. Moreno.

Mayor Daniel H. Young, who did not respond to telephone calls, pledged during his reelection campaign to seek competitive bidding, as did Councilman Miguel A. Pulido Jr., who said he favors testing the market.

Moreno and Councilman Robert L. Richardson also said they favor getting proposals from other companies.

But they differed on a key issue that threatens to become a sticking point: whether the city will require one company to provide service to all customers, or whether several firms can divide up what is now the largest exclusive trash hauling contract in Orange County.

“I am not here to make sure that we are breeding monopolies,” said Moreno, who added that he favored splitting the contract if that would foster more competition. “Let’s find out. Let other companies come to us and tell us what they will offer.”

But Richardson countered that dividing up the contract among smaller companies would dilute the centralized control and responsibility needed to comply with state law requiring cities to reduce their trash by 25% by 1995 and 50% by 2000.

Councilman Richards L. Norton could not be reached for comment.

Only Lutz said he was leaning toward keeping the garbage collection agreement in the hands of Great Western.

City negotiators “feel they have negotiated a good contract and there’s nobody else out there that can handle the job,” Lutz said.