MISSION VIEJO : New Company to Haul Residential Trash

The City Council this week dumped its longtime residential waste hauler and awarded the contract to BFI Industries.

The cost of household trash pickup will rise to $13.29 a month, an increase of 9 cents, but will be less than the $14.97 that the service would have cost if the city had extended its contract with Waste Management of Orange County.

Western Waste was chosen to handle commercial-waste hauling, while BFI was awarded the business franchise.

During a four-hour public hearing, representatives of several trash companies expressed frustration with the selection of BFI.

“To say we were disappointed in the way the recommendation was reached is a colossal understatement,” said Bob Coyle, division president of Waste Management. “On a regular basis, the rules of the game were switched.”

He and other waste haulers said that BFI was allowed to lower its bid for monthly rates from $17 to $13.29 and permitted to adjust several other contract terms.

Dolores Ottey, owner of 5-Star Rubbish, said, “I am a little concerned because I never thought that this process was a pristine process. This whole thing wasn’t fair.”

The council had established a bid proposal committee of staff members, consultants and council members William S. Craycraft and Susan Withrow.

The committee, which studied the proposals from all the competing companies and heard their comments, defended its actions. All of the bidders were allowed to update their bids, Withrow said. “This process was made as fair as could humanly be done.”

City Manager Dan Joseph said Mission Viejo went out of its way to allow changes to the bid package.

“Typically, we don’t necessarily have the prospective bidders involved in the process giving us comments,” he said.