ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : The Weight of Evidence at Landfills

Orange County officials say everything has been above board in the way various trash haulers have been billed for dumping at county landfills. But though there may be no evidence to date that anything illegal was done, a lawsuit brought by one of the smaller hauling firms raises good questions about whether the scales always have been balanced in the collection of landfill fees.

These questions did not escape the attention of Superior Court Judge James P. Gray when he presided recently over a case in which South Coast Refuse Corp. is seeking $281,000. The Irvine company maintains that it overpaid that amount because its loads were assessed by a different method.

The judge properly referred the matter to the district attorney’s office--an unusual step--over the objection of county counsel. The district attorney is investigating.

According to the trash firm, the county allowed some preferred haulers in 1990 and 1991 to use a scale system to determine the actual weight of individual loads and that resulted in lower weight determinations and therefore lower fees for those companies.

Another procedure that Orange County employed, one used for firms such as South Coast, was much less accurate. The so-called “K-factor” basically consisted of eyeballing; the size of trash bins was used to estimate the weight and the levies to be charged.

A 1991 county memo seems to confirm that some haulers were charged on the basis of a different procedure. Why did this happen? When the matter went to court, Assistant County Counsel Lon Watson said that there was no sign of corruption or wrongdoing in the case even if different standards had been used. The judge, in writing to Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, doubted also that county officials had broken any laws, but he raised an eyebrow over the hundreds of thousands of dollars in question.

As a matter of basic fairness, haulers ought to expect--and receive--fair and equitable treatment from Orange County. Fortunately, last year, the county installed a more precise system for all, using scales to determine loads at the county’s four landfills.

But where was the equitability in the past if the county applied different standards? The county can’t have it both ways: Either those who were overcharged deserve a refund or those who paid less should be pursued now to make up the difference for the county’s coffers.