Supervisors to Weigh East Cities’ Trash Plan : Environment: Some local officials say the task force could undermine a countywide agency approved by the Legislature.

Ventura County supervisors today will consider a plan to help east county cities lower their trash disposal rates and control the flow of garbage to the Simi Valley Landfill.

The cities of Thousand Oaks, Moorpark and Simi Valley already have agreed to join the East Ventura County Waste Task Force, which officials hope will help them meet state mandates to reduce by half the amount of waste dumped in landfills by 2000.

Some local officials were concerned that the task force may undermine the proposed countywide Waste Authority recently approved by the state Legislature.

“It’s strictly an overlap of what we’re trying to do with the countywide Waste Authority,” said Camarillo City Councilman Ken Gose. “I don’t think we should do anything that would interfere with that at this time.”

Supervisor Maggie Kildee, however, who backs the task force, said the body would not further split the county on trash issues but would “help the county and the east county cities work together on waste decisions.”

Supervisors Vicky Howard and John K. Flynn on Monday also said they support the task force. Supervisors Maria VanderKolk and Susan K. Lacey could not be reached for comment.

The city of Camarillo recently decided not to join the task force, but Gose said they would send a representative to its meetings.

The task force will hold its first meeting Wednesday at Simi Valley City Hall. Representatives from the east county cities have been meeting to discuss trash issues on an informal basis for several years.

In joining the task force, officials from Moorpark and Simi Valley have said the east county needs to protect itself if the Waste Authority falls through.

Local officials labored over the Waste Authority proposal for two years before giving it to Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) to introduce to state lawmakers.

But legislators, saying they refuse to micro-manage, gutted the bill and passed only a framework in which local officials must reconstruct the duties and powers of the battered authority.

East county officials, fearing restoration of the authority would take too long, decided to form the task force to more quickly meet state trash mandates.

They reiterated their desire for a separate task force when the county last week said it could not reinstate a lapsed ordinance that prohibited most out-of-county waste from entering the Simi Valley Landfill.

County counsel argued that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision made the ordinance unconstitutional. But Simi Valley and Moorpark officials charged that the county was abandoning its east county cities. They said they fear the same may happen to them if they join the countywide Waste Authority.

County trash officials said they hoped the task force would not further jeopardize the Waste Authority but did not rule out that possibility. “One could reasonably argue that . . . if duplicated in the west county, (the task force) could drive a wedge in our efforts to unify the county,” said Clint Whitney, general manager of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District, which operates Bailard and Toland landfills.

One of the goals of the countywide Waste Authority is to unify under a single entity the waste functions now performed by cities and three countywide agencies.

But Flynn said the demise of the authority would not necessarily be a bad thing. “The task force is supported by the people,” Flynn said. “It seems like a more natural approach to handling trash issues. Without the support of the people, you have to ask, is this authority really a good idea?”