Trash Hauler Is a Winner With Carson City Council : Garbage: Western Waste Industries is awarded a series of contracts and extensions to make it the sole service provider in Carson through 1999.

Trash hauler Western Waste Industries scored a clean sweep at Tuesday’s Carson City Council meeting, winning a series of contracts and extensions that grant the firm exclusive pickup of all of Carson’s trash through 1999.

Western Waste obtained the council’s approval on a much-coveted exclusive agreement for commercial-industrial trash hauling, an extension of a residential trash pickup agreement and concessions in administrative fees the firm will pay the city.

The contracts, which amount to a multimillion-dollar monopoly for Western Waste, were criticized by Carson’s powerful business lobby and Councilwoman Sylvia L. Muise, who stormed out of Tuesday’s meeting and was absent for two of the three votes on the contracts.

Businesses complain that they will be at the mercy of Western Waste when rates are set. Muise said Wednesday that a public hearing on the contracts should have been held and that competitive bids should have been sought before the residential contract was extended. The residential agreement, which was to expire in June, 1994, will now expire in June, 1999, as will the new commercial-industrial contract.

“I don’t believe in rolling over contracts, the point being that if you adopt an open, competitive process, all people have an equal opportunity at obtaining city business,” Muise said Wednesday.

City officials said the consolidation of the trash contracts is aimed at complying with a new state law requiring it to reduce the amount of trash it sends to landfills by 25% by 1995 and by 50% by the year 2000. Compliance will require recycling, and proponents of the contracts have argued that the best way to ensure that recycling succeeds is to have one hauler handling all the city’s refuse and recyclables, and to then make the hauler accountable to the city.

Supporters of the agreements hailed the residential recycling component the city obtained at no cost in exchange for the exclusive commercial-industrial contract.

“We have free recycling for eight years,” said Mayor Michael I. Mitoma, a strong backer of Western Waste. He said that in many cities residents are charged an additional fee for recycling.

Mitoma joined with council members Kay A. Calas, Juanita McDonald and Muise in adopting a residential recycling requirement. Councilwoman Vera Robles DeWitt was absent.

After Muise’s departure, Mitoma, Calas and McDonald adopted the exclusive commercial-industrial contract with Western Waste and the separate measure to lengthen the term of the residential trash collection agreement. Residents are charged $12.45 a month for twice-weekly trash collection.

The 27 other commercial waste haulers that do business in Carson have been given five years’ notice, as required under state law, that the city has entered into the exclusive agreement. Currently, the city estimates that Western Waste has up to 60% of the commercial-industrial businesses in Carson as clients. The value of the exclusive commercial agreement is estimated at $6 million, said City Administrator Larry Olson. Commercial-industrial trash collection rates have yet to be determined.

Critics in and out of City Hall said the contracts smacked of political favoritism. City insiders, who declined to be identified, said Mitoma’s friendship with Western Waste President Kosti Shirvanian played a key role in contract negotiations--a charge Mitoma did not deny Wednesday.

“He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met,” Mitoma said. “Whenever we ask him to do something for the city, he’s always there.”

Mitoma said Shirvanian’s civic contributions, such as financial contributions to the Carson Coordinating Council, sponsorship of a fund-raiser for the city’s Rose Float Assn. and a $25,000 contribution last year to the Carson-Gardena YMCA, are evidence of his commitment to the city.

Dispute over the contracts marks the latest in a series of controversies involving Western Waste that began last June, when the council initially approved the concept of an exclusive commercial-industrial waste contract. That action was rescinded by the council last Aug. 7 on the advice of City Atty. Glenn R. Watson in response to a complaint by Browning-Ferris Industries, a rival waste hauler, concerning what BFI said was a misleading agenda item leading to the June decision.

The council also decided to solicit competitive bids on the contract and, at its meeting last Aug. 21, awarded the contract to Western Waste on a 4-1 vote, with Muise opposed.

McDonald, according to her campaign spending statement for the six-month period ending last Dec. 31, received a $1,000 contribution from Western Waste Industries. DeWitt received $500 from Western Waste during the same period, according to DeWitt’s campaign statement.

In an interview Wednesday, McDonald denied any connection between the contribution and her votes on the contracts.

“I vote the way I feel about an issue. . . . There is no quid pro quo,” she said, adding that Western Waste was one of many contributors at her fund-raiser in June, 1990.

DeWitt said the contribution was one of a number of donations made after the August vote during a fund-raiser last September. She said she supported Western Waste because of the franchise fee revenue it will generate and because “it’s important that we get the recycling going.”

Also in that reporting period, Calas received a $500 contribution from Western Waste Vice President George Osepian and his wife, Mildred. Attempts to reach Calas for comment late Wednesday were unsuccessful.

A furor in Redondo Beach in April about Councilman Ron Cawdrey’s acceptance of $1,500 in campaign contributions from Western Waste led to conflict-of-interest charges and prompted the council to include a provision in its new waste-handling ordinance prohibiting any contract from being awarded to any firm that makes a reportable contribution or gift to a council member or city employee during the prior year.