Major Trash Hauler Sees Moorpark as ‘Gateway’ to County Contracts : Business: Browning Ferris Industries of Texas is pressuring the city to give it a chance to bid. It says it can offer service at a lower price.

Setting the stage for what could become a countywide contest over trash hauling, a huge international trash disposal company has come to Moorpark intent on horning in on the business of two local haulers.

On the eve of contract negotiations with G.I. Rubbish and Anderson Disposal Co., city officials are being pressured by Browning Ferris Industries--the nation’s second-largest trash hauler--to open up the bidding process and give it a chance.

Moorpark, with slightly more than 7,000 trash customers, might seem like small potatoes for the Texas-based company worth more than $4 billion. But company officials see the contract as possibly their first foothold in the area.

“Moorpark is our gateway to Ventura County,” said Toni Simmons, the company’s market development manager for Southern California.

The company has already won a contract to haul trash from Camarillo State Hospital and wants to compete for trash service in the county’s unincorporated areas.

It is eyeing the contract for the city of Camarillo that expires in 1999, a move that would put the company in competition with western Ventura County’s chief hauler, E.J. Harrison & Sons.

County officials said inflated trash rates in the area could make it a ripe target for large trash haulers to try to underbid local firms. Monthly trash bills in Ventura County are from 30% to 40% higher than in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, said Greg Warren, an analyst for the county’s solid waste department.

“I don’t doubt that (BFI) is hoping for a better presence in the county, but a lot of these contracts are already locked up,” Warren said.

The sometimes exclusive nature of the contracts--a few with self-renewing clauses and others drawn up in a closed bidding process--keeps prices up, he said.

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In an effort to open contracts to competitive bidding, county officials will meet next month with trash haulers in the area to discuss eliminating automatic contract extensions.

Although Moorpark’s $17.40 monthly rate is at least $2 lower than the county average, Simmons said the fee is still inflated when compared to other Southern California communities. Simmons said the fee should be about $13.50.

But local haulers deny that they are overcharging local communities. Instead, they say, the high cost of dumping at landfills has increased their costs.

“When they compare prices I don’t think they are comparing apples to apples,” said Michael Smith, the chief executive officer for G.I. “We don’t feel our prices are out of line.”

For now, Moorpark city officials are renegotiating their contract with Anderson and G.I., and are keeping the process closed to outside bidding.

BFI has formally requested that the city open up the bidding process for the contract that expires in July.

Although she would not divulge the price her company would offer the city, Simmons said she could almost guarantee that it would be lower than what the city pays now.

“We’re convinced we can offer better service and a better price,” she said.

BFI opened an office in Santa Paula recently that handles construction accounts--temporary trash hauling from construction sites. The company was just awarded a contract to haul trash for the Camarillo State Hospital and narrowly lost out on a contract for the California Youth Authority.

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Hardy Strozier, a consultant working for the firm, said these were just the first moves the company was making in the county.

“We are intent on providing municipal waste service in the county,” Strozier said. BFI has also explored efforts to haul trash from western Ventura County to landfills the firm owns in Los Angeles County or in Arizona.

And now local haulers are hearing the big company’s footsteps, said G.I.’s Smith.

“It’s definitely a concern for us,” Smith said.

Large companies have been known to offer lower prices up front so that they can get a foot in the door, he said, but once they have killed off the local competition, the prices creep up again.

“We’ve been here a long time,” Smith said. “We live here, and we’ve invested a lot in this community. We want to keep working with the city and make sure we’re meeting their needs.”

Smith questioned the assertion that rates are artificially high in the county and in Moorpark. He said that high tipping fees at the Simi Valley landfill where, he said, G.I. is required to dump the city’s trash, contribute to the higher prices.

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Late last year G.I. officials signed a five-year contract with Thousand Oaks and the year before they signed a 10-year contract with Simi Valley. Losing the Moorpark contract would be a blow to the company, which is still going through bankruptcy reorganization.

City officials said they have been satisfied with their existing trash service and have no immediate plans to open up the bidding process, although a few council members said that was still a possibility.

“I’m in favor of finding the least expensive service for the city,” said councilman Scott Montgomery. “I’m not yet sure if that means we should open up the bidding process. The evidences seems to indicate that we should, though.”

Meanwhile, BFI officials said they are looking for other municipal contracts in the county to bid on.

Camarillo’s contract, now held by E.J. Harrison & Sons, will be the first to come up for renegotiations when it expires in 1999. Harrison also controls trash hauling in Ventura, Camarillo, Ojai and Fillmore.

Company officials would not comment Thursday on BFI’s intentions to move into the county. E.J. Harrison has exclusive franchise agreements with those cities and most of the contracts contain evergreen clauses, according to county officials.