Petition Drive Aims to Upend Trash Pact
Community activists and a local trash hauler have begun gathering signatures to overturn the city’s decision to award a 10-year contract, worth about $7.2 million, for residential trash pickup without competitive bidding.
Organizers of the campaign sent more than 10,000 mailers Monday, urging residents to sign the petition.
The council voted 3 to 2 in March to award the contract to System Disposal, a company headed by John Marderosian, a longtime friend of Mayor Tom Jackson.
The contract is scheduled to begin in 2004; the city’s current trash contract with Waste Management Inc. expires Dec. 31, 2003.
Jackson has said there was no need to put the contract out to bid because he is certain that Marderosian’s company can provide the best trash service for the city.
Marderosian is the former general manager of a trash firm that picks up the city’s commercial debris.
Waste Management and several Huntington Park activists hope to force the council to put the matter on the November ballot.
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