PIERCE COLLEGE : Contract for Recycler Expected

A contract to operate a recycling center at Pierce College is expected to be awarded to a new operator Wednesday, leaving the previous proprietor puzzled about his sudden eviction after four years and in a quandary about how to revive his business.

The Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees is expected to approve an agreement with ICAN Recycling Inc. at its meeting next week, said Fausto Capobianco, district spokesman.

“At this point, I’m totally confused. And I’m angry,” said Erick Schulze, who on Oct. 21 was ordered to vacate his business within two days--three weeks after he and district officials had agreed on terms for a contract.

Schulze had operated the center north of Victory Boulevard on the campus on a month-to-month basis since 1988. He said he tried for years to get the district to sign a contract with him.

A bid Schulze presented in June for a three-year contract was accepted, but the contract was never signed and, therefore, is not legally binding, district officials said.

“They said they would send me a contract within 30 days,” he said. “The contract didn’t come until September. When it finally came, it was wrong. It wasn’t what I offered to do in the bid.”

In an exchange of letters, he and the district agreed to new terms, Schulze said.

“I was waiting for the contract, but they never sent it to me,” he said.

The next he heard from the college was an Oct. 21 letter from Don Love, Pierce College vice president of administration, ordering him to vacate the premises.

Capobianco said that residents had complained that Schulze’s operation was too messy and that Schulze “failed to make payments and failed to maintain the facility in a safe and acceptable manner.”

Schulze said even though there was no signed contract, the district had a moral obligation to honor the bid acceptance.

Having to close the center “hurt me, hurt my employees and hurt my business.” He added that he kept the center as clean as any other recycling center. “We’re dealing with garbage, after all.”

He denied owing the district money.

While Schulze and district officials were haggling over contract terms, officials at the college apparently found an operator they liked better.

ICAN Recycling Inc. began operating the center Dec. 17, also on a month-to-month basis. The company’s bid for a three-year contract was accepted by the district Jan. 7 because “it was the only bid that met all the criteria,” Capobianco said.

He said the district solicited bids from five companies, but Schulze’s UBC Recovery Corp. was not one of them.

The ICAN-operated center is open to the public from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

It accepts cardboard, newspaper, white ledger paper, computer paper, aluminum cans, glass bottles, redeemable plastic bottles and aluminum and steel cans for recycling.