Bill for Agency to Oversee Trash Disposal Is OKd : Legislation: Assembly panel approves by 9-1 vote a proposal for waste authority. But Oxnard and labor unions cite concerns.

Over strong objections from the city of Oxnard, a state Assembly committee approved a bill Thursday that would allow the establishment of a regional authority to oversee waste disposal across Ventura County.

The proposal by Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) is intended to make it easier for city councils and the county Board of Supervisors to form an agency to meet state goals to reduce trash and promote recycling.

The Assembly Natural Resources Committee approved the bill, known as the Ventura County Waste Management Authority Act, by a lopsided 9-1 margin and sent it to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

At issue is a turf fight among bureaucrats and politicians over who should direct waste collection in Ventura County and whether the Legislature is the appropriate arena to settle the dispute.

Supporters contend that the measure would eliminate duplicate governmental agencies and believe the management of solid waste on a countywide basis would be a long-term benefit.

But Oxnard officials on Thursday raised objections that the legislation is premature and unneeded. They maintained that it was not merely a “district” bill tailored for Wright’s constituents but a far-ranging shift that could hurt the region.

In a letter to Wright distributed to committee members, Oxnard City Manager Vernon G. Hazen wrote: “Oxnard cannot support a last minute, shell of a bill that has a far greater potential of doing harm than doing good.”

With just two weeks remaining in the 1993 legislative session, time is running out for supporters to push the increasingly contentious issue through the Legislature. But Assembly members deferred to Wright and her backers, who argued that it was a necessary bill.

Wright introduced the measure in response to city and county officials who have spent two years seeking to form a centralized waste authority. The proposal would allow a merger of the county’s Solid Waste Management Department and the Regional Sanitation District.

The legislation would direct officials to prepare a plan by July 1, 1994, and present it to a local task force. With approval of the county supervisors and seven of the county’s 10 cities, the district could be established.

Assemblyman Byron D. Sher (D-Palo Alto), chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, told Oxnard city officials that nothing in the measure forces them to join the waste agency.

To the consternation of some bureaucrats and politicians in Ventura County, the measure fails to spell out the agency’s ability to set trash collection rates and administer contracts of trash haulers, duties now performed by the county and individual cities. Lawmakers balked at providing such specific detail in state legislation, instead agreeing to provide a general framework for the waste authority.

As a result, the County Waste Commission Wednesday failed to reach a consensus on whether to support the measure.

But Wright dismissed the objections. She said she has contacted city officials and she believes most of them agree with provisions in the bill that allow the operational details of the waste authority to be hammered out at the city and county level.

But Oxnard’s city manager said he believes the increasingly lucrative nature of waste disposal is at the core of the dispute. As Hazen put it: “garbage is money.”

For instance, he cited inconsistencies in Wright’s measure that threaten Oxnard’s ability to sell $25 million in bonds needed to finance a recycling and waste transfer station. That, he said, “puts Oxnard at needless risk of not being able to meet” state goals of reducing trash by 25%.

Hazen said that concerns about the measure are also being raised by labor unions, which want to ensure that public employees are hired by the waste authority.