VanderKolk Targets ‘Bad Boy’ Businesses : Laws: The supervisor would ban county contracts with firms having a history of misconduct. The action follows indictment of Waste Management, which hopes to develop Weldon Canyon dump.
In the wake of the latest indictment of Waste Management of California, Ventura County Supervisor Maria E. VanderKolk has proposed drafting a “bad-boy†ordinance that would prohibit companies with a history of legal misconduct from doing business with the county.
VanderKolk, in a memo circulated Monday, informed other supervisors that she intends to ask the board next Tuesday to direct county lawyers to write the new law.
“Due to recent circumstances,†VanderKolk said in the memo, “I believe it is important to proceed with such an ordinance for our county.â€
A Santa Clara County grand jury last week indicted Waste Management and eight employees with grand theft on suspicion of cheating a rival landfill operator and the city of San Jose out of $850,000.
Waste Management has proposed opening a $30-million, 110-acre dump in Weldon Canyon in the hills between Ventura and Ojai as the primary landfill for the west county for at least 30 years.
Neither James M. Jevens, manager of the company’s Ventura County project, nor VanderKolk could be reached for comment late Monday.
But VanderKolk aide Doug Johnson said that County Counsel James L. McBride had advised the supervisor that a carefully written “bad-boy†ordinance would be legal and that Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury supports the proposed law.
Johnson said that 14 states and numerous counties and local jurisdictions have restricted the issuance of contracts based on the criminal and civil convictions of private companies. Some federal agencies also are forbidden from doing business with such companies, he said.
Bradbury, a Waste Management critic with whom VanderKolk met Monday morning, released a short statement saying he is “supportive of this type of ordinance.â€
McBride said he thinks the county legally can decide to issue contracts only to companies with clean records.
“She’s saying that as policy we shouldn’t be doing business with crooks, and that’s legitimate policy,†the county counsel said. “But taking that policy and meeting all the due-process requirements is no mean task. While it sounds easy, it’s not.â€
McBride said no California county issues contracts only to companies with no past legal problems. He said that when Mendocino County tried to adopt such a policy last year, the proposed ordinance was rewritten a dozen times before finally being rejected by officials there.
Johnson said VanderKolk understands that there may be problems with the ordinance, and even that it is possible the new law would not prohibit the local Waste Management subsidiary from holding a county contract.
“The question is, if the board of directors on the national level gets into trouble, will that affect a little subsidiary in this county?†Johnson said. “That’s what we’re asking the county counsel to find out for us.â€
VanderKolk’s wariness of Waste Management, the nation’s largest trash company, has increased not only with the recent Santa Clara County indictment but because of a March warning from San Diego County Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller, Johnson said.
Responding to a Waste Management proposal for a new landfill in San Diego County, Miller warned that public agencies should use “extreme caution†when dealing with Waste Management Inc., the parent company of Waste Management of California.
The prosecutor cited a 1991 Ventura County Sheriff’s Department survey that found that the fast-growing rubbish company had paid $52.3 million in fines nationwide in the 1980s. The survey listed 10 criminal, 22 environmental and 23 antitrust actions against the company--including several for price fixing.
Waste Management officials have repeatedly said that nearly all their legal problems have resulted from the activities of former owners of recently acquired subsidiaries.
However, Ventura County supervisors said last week that the new indictments have made them more concerned about dealing with Waste Management.
Board members stalled the company’s Weldon Canyon project in April, saying they wanted county planners to consider four alternate dump sites and to study a proposal to ship county trash out of state.
If Waste Management fails to gain approval for Weldon Canyon, the county’s largest public rubbish agency has said it is interested in purchasing the site. The Ventura Regional Sanitation District is also pursuing other landfill options, such as expanding the Toland Road dump near Santa Paula.
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