Board Backs Single Trash Authority for County

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 0 Tuesday to support legislation that could end the county’s trash conflicts by binding the cities and county together under one Waste Management Authority.

The proposed agency would absorb the assets, duties and liabilities of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District, which operates the Bailard and Toland Road landfills and oversees maintenance of the closed Coastal and Santa Clara landfills.

The authority also would act as a countywide public utility, regulating trash dumping fees and administering contracts with trash haulers and landfills--duties now performed by the sanitation district and city and county governments.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Supervisor Maggie Kildee said. “It may be a long time before it reaches fruition, but I do believe we have the commitment of all the cities and the county for moving toward this authority.”

This month, Ventura County’s city councils are in the process of casting official votes supporting the draft legislation, which already has been forwarded to state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) for introduction in the Legislature.

The Ventura City Council approved of the draft Monday night, and other cities are expected to follow.

Wright said Tuesday that she is preparing to introduce the legislation in the Senate in incomplete form as a “spot bill” in time to meet the March 5 filing deadline for new legislation, and then file amendments as the draft is finalized.

Ventura County will benefit from a more cohesive approach to resolving long-standing trash issues under one centralized authority, Wright said. This solution comes at a particularly important time, she said, as local governments across California must cut their volume of waste sent to landfills by 25% by 1995 and 50% by 2000 or face daily fines of up to $10,000.

Wright said the conflicts among cities are understandable, but that most cities are falling into line since they reached a consensus three weeks ago on the concept of a centralized waste authority.

“I think it’s easy to see you have conflict as far as Weldon Canyon is concerned, you have conflict over whether Bailard is going to be closed or extended. . . . And who’s going to be responsible to see that the closure follows the law,” she said. “It’s all those things that everyone’s tugging at.”

Once the legislation is passed--amending state codes to allow its existence--each city and the county must vote whether to ratify the bill and join the authority, Wright said.

“We’re trying to be very democratic about the process,” she said. “You want to be sure that every community knows exactly what it means to be in the authority and why it’s to their advantage to be involved in it. I don’t want anyone in Ventura County to feel that what we’re doing here is just giving them another layer of government.”

Kildee said that at least eight governments must ratify the authority for it to be created and empowered to oversee trash management in the county.

She also called for an audit of the sanitation district’s financial holdings and legal liabilities to learn what the new authority would be taking on.

Supervisor Vicky Howard said, “I have no doubt in my mind it is the best thing for us to do from a regional standpoint. . . . I’m hoping we reach early fruition.”

Supervisor John K. Flynn was absent from the meeting.