Kickbacks Get Former Executive 18 Months

Kenneth J. Walsh, a former landfill company executive convicted in a San Bernardino County government corruption case, was sentenced Friday to 18 months in federal prison--the stiffest sentence yet handed out in a series of scandals.

In the mid-1990s, Walsh, 53, of Carlsbad, made his mark in San Bernardino County with what was the traditional way at the time--through bribes. He made payments to the county’s then-chief executive while his company received $20 million in public business.

Investigators, and a new county administration, have since unraveled that and other cases in a tale of corruption that has roiled the county, calling into question millions of dollars worth of county contracts and undercutting the public’s trust in government.

Several others involved in the cases are scheduled to be sentenced over the next four weeks.

Thomas O’Donnell, San Bernardino County’s former treasurer-tax collector, accused of accepting bribes and a trip to London in exchange for more public business, is next. He’ll be followed by Richard Tisdale, a financial consultant, and James J. Hlawek, the county’s former chief administrative officer and the central figure in the case.

Walsh was a vice president of Norcal Waste Systems, a San Francisco-based company that operates several dump sites for San Bernardino County. Norcal was awarded nearly $20 million in county contracts during Hlawek’s tenure.

Hlawek has since acknowledged that, in exchange for helping Norcal, he received cash or in-kind payments totaling between $49,000 and $70,000 in 1996 and 1997.

In all, Hlawek received 28 payments--some of which were paid by Walsh. Meanwhile, Walsh was receiving kickbacks of his own from a dirt-hauling company that contracted with Norcal. Walsh was fired by Norcal shortly after the investigation began.

A year ago, seven men--four former San Bernardino County officials and three businessmen, including Walsh--pleaded guilty in three separate bribery scandals.

Beyond the Norcal case, Tisdale admitted paying off Hlawek, O’Donnell and the county’s former investment officers in exchange for a series of county contracts worth more than $350,000.

Ronald Canham, a management consultant, paid Hlawek in exchange for receiving a $94,000 contract to conduct motivational training seminars for county employees.

Walsh is the third of the seven to be sentenced. In April, Canham was sentenced to six months in custody. Sol Levin, the county’s former investment officer, was sentenced in June to spend one year and one day in prison.