City Trash Contract Transferred Again

For the second time in as many months, the City Council has agreed to let another company pick up Moorpark’s trash.

The council voted unanimously Wednesday night to let G.I. Rubbish of Simi Valley, which currently has an exclusive contract to collect garbage in the city, transfer that contract to a firm that is trying to buy G.I.

The council had reached a similar agreement in September, when it voted to transfer the G.I. contract to U.S.A. Waste Services of Dallas as part of G.I.’s sale and reorganization in bankruptcy court. The council, however, later learned that it had not fully understood the exact nature of the financial arrangement involving financially troubled G.I.

The local company was in the process of being purchased by a Torrance-based company, Western Waste Industries, when Western Waste was bought by U.S.A. Waste. Consequently, G.I. would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Waste, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S.A.

Western Waste has been implicated in several political corruption scandals and is now the subject of an FBI probe in Riverside County.

Before the September vote, council members had believed that Western Waste had ceased to exist following the purchase by U.S.A. Waste. Although it still exists, U.S.A. officials assured the city that they, not Western Waste, would exercise final control over G.I.

Councilman Pat Hunter said Wednesday that he was still concerned about the allegations of corruption but thought the transfer agreement, which allows the city to switch to another garbage hauler in two years if necessary, shields the city from any possible problems.

“I think we’re protected,” he said.