City Moves to Block Trash Pact Transfer

Determined to keep a company linked to political corruption out of Thousand Oaks, city officials say they will ask a judge to reconsider last week’s decision to transfer the city’s trash-hauling contracts to Western Waste Industries.

City Atty. Mark Sellers said Wednesday he believes that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robin Riblet misinterpreted an earlier court case in her ruling allowing the transfer. Should Riblet refuse to revisit the issue, council members agreed in a closed session Tuesday night to then appeal the ruling to a higher court.

“The council is not comfortable with Western Waste and some of the people who still work there,” Councilman Mike Markey said. “The case that she cited . . . if anything, that case supports our position.”

The council voted unanimously in September to oppose the transfer, saying Western Waste has a “voluminous rap sheet” that includes corruption cases in Compton and Louisiana.

To support the transfer, Riblet cited a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case in which a Nevada taxicab company had undergone a bankruptcy reorganization and hired temporary workers in place of full-time employees--a violation of Nevada regulations requiring taxis to be driven by company employees. The case focused on whether federal bankruptcy laws should override state laws seeking to protect the health and safety of citizens.

According to Riblet, the answer in the case was yes. According to Sellers, it was no.

“I’ve looked at this, other lawyers have looked at this, and everybody is at a loss as to why she brought this case up,” Sellers said. “We read the case substantially different than she read it.”

Sellers said an appeal is very likely, since the chances of the judge changing her mind are not good. Riblet, however, also cited another case as part of her ruling--one that will be “much tougher” to challenge successfully, Mayor Andy Fox said.

Fox believes it is important as a matter of principle that cities fight to retain control over local issues such as trash haulers. The city received a letter from West Hollywood officials, urging Thousand Oaks to appeal.

“We believe local government should have the ability to control local issues, and should not have these kinds of issues decided by a federal court,” Fox said. “This case, in particular, is a serious issue, because we want to do everything we can to disassociate ourselves with a company that has a criminal history.”

The trash contracts are now controlled by a subsidiary of Simi Valley-based G.I. Industries, which also picks up trash in Simi Valley, Moorpark and unincorporated areas of eastern Ventura County. G.I. representatives were unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Riblet’s decision cleared the way for G.I. Industries to complete its reorganization and emerge from bankruptcy by transferring its contracts to Western Waste and becoming a subsidiary of the Torrance-based company, California’s largest trash hauler.

Western Waste is itself being gobbled up by Dallas-based USA Waste Services, creating one of the country’s largest trash-hauling companies.

Representatives of Western Waste did not return phone calls Wednesday.

Under the transfer, G.I. Industries would continue to provide trash-hauling services in Thousand Oaks, according to company officials. Riblet said last week that Western Waste would not be involved in the day-to-day operations of G.I. Industries.

But Thousand Oaks officials find that hard to believe.

They contend that Western Waste still employs many of the same people involved in the Compton and Louisiana cases, and therefore is not the sort of business they want to work with. Western Waste was also recently named as one of the targets of an FBI political corruption investigation in Riverside County.

“I don’t like dealing with people who have criminal records,” Councilwoman Elois Zeanah said. “I find that abhorrent.”