War of Words Over Sanitary District Control : Trash: Garden Grove wants to take over the operation. The battle has prompted a flurry of flyers aimed at winning support of the public.

Mud is flying at the Garden Grove Sanitary District.

An 18-month-long dispute between the city and the sanitary district over who should manage the city’s refuse has turned into a public relations battle, with direct mailings by the quarreling city and district, and even a newspaper ad by a private business group trashing the district.

The city claims the district is losing money to poor financial management, wasteful bureaucracy and state withholding of local tax revenues. The district says its decades of experience enable it to hook up sewers and haul trash more cheaply and efficiently than the city can. The conflict is under review by the Local Agency Formation Commission, which oversees restructuring of public agencies.

In a bid to win popular support, the two sides have taken their cases to the people, lambasting each other with the kind of criticism usually reserved for candidates in election years.

“Garden Grove Sanitary District . . . Last year, you borrowed five million dollars to gamble in the now bankrupt Orange County investment pool. You Lost!” proclaimed a March newspaper ad sponsored by businessmen Tom Petrosine and Woodrow Butterfield.

“The Garden Grove City Council unanimously sought to absorb the sanitary district and pledged to clean up your financial mess. . . . If you selfishly refuse this tax saving request, SHAME ON YOU.”

A city flyer took a less incendiary tack, but delivered numbers intended to convince residents they’d be better off dumping the district.

Trash rates have doubled since 1989, the flyer stated. The district lost over $1.2 million of its investment in the Orange County Investment Pool. It was forced to give up $725,000 when the state skimmed local tax revenue to help balance the budget, and stands to lose another $900,000 a year to the state--money the city would be better able to guard, said Mayor Bruce A. Broadwater.

But the district has fought back. A recent press release announced, “Garden Grove City Council Continues Misinformation Campaign.”

“The Council’s message about GGSD included in the City’s flyer . . . is riddled with vague, broad and unsupported statements that only exacerbate the community’s confusion,” sanitary district board member George Zlaket said in the prepared statement.

The rise in rates came from an increase in landfill fees that would apply to the city as well, the press release said. A statement mailed to residents defended the district’s decision to invest in the Orange County Investment Pool, and cited a study that suggested sanitation costs might rise if the city took over.

The district’s flyer, Broadwater said, was all wrong.

“I don’t think they addressed the issues,” he said. “I think they really muddied the waters.”

City resident Elizabeth Charron said the city is obscuring the truth and confounding the citizens.

“I think it’s confusing, and I think it’s meant to be confusing, because they want the citizens to agree with them,” she said. “So if they get enough letters in support, they can take those letters to LAFCO and say see, the citizens want it, but they don’t even know what they want.”