City to Review Garbage Services Dispute

MISSION VIEJO —  City officials meet tonight to discuss a long-simmering dispute over the garbage collection services provided by Dewey’s Rubbish Service.

Reacting to hundreds of complaints from residents, the City Council set a special meeting for 6:30 p.m. at City Hall to publicly review the city’s contract with the company. The contract expires in four years.

The dispute stemmed from charges that residents here are paying too much for a curbside recycling program.

City officials say hundreds of residents are upset over a $2.51 charge included in their monthly bill to pay for the program.

“People want to know why they are paying to recycle rather than recycling things themselves and keeping the money,” Councilwoman Sharon Cody said.

The city maintains that it wants to renegotiate the contract with Dewey’s but has also been preparing for several months to challenge the franchise agreement in court, if necessary.

A war chest of $500,000 has been set aside for legal expenses. The city also hired an environmental attorney, Terry A. Trumbull of the Los Angeles law firm of Richards, Watson & Gershon, to review the contract.

“The council would much prefer arriving at a fair settlement of our dispute with Dewey’s,” Mayor Robert A. Curtis said. “However, we’ve prudently prepared for all scenarios.”

According to Curtis, there are several areas of the contract in which the waste hauler has not performed as promised.

Part of the monthly rate of $11.85 per household is based on an estimated 48,000 tons of trash hauled annually from Mission Viejo homes. Curtis says that a recent audit of the company’s books shows that only about 33,000 tons of waste were picked up from city residences.

“We find it coincidental that all the mistakes made by Dewey’s have benefited the company,” Curtis said.

While the contract is in dispute, the city is blocking a rate hike to $12.98 per household that would have taken effect Oct. 1.

The company’s position is that the city signed a contract and should honor the commitment.

“As far as we’re concerned, there is no dispute,” said David Ross, general manager of the Irvine-based firm. “We are garbage haulers, and we just want to get back to the business of hauling garbage.”

Ross said a draft report of the city audit shows little or no discrepancy between company estimates of trash hauled and what was actually picked up from Mission Viejo residences.

He added that the 48,000 tons was an estimated figure and that collection rates are adjusted annually according to the actual amount of rubbish collected. Ross defended the mandatory recycling fee, saying studies have shown that voluntary recycling does not work.

“Mandatory programs are necessary to comply” with a state law that requires waste taken to landfills by cities and counties be reduced by 25% by 1995, he said.

Dewey’s Rubbish has also taken steps to prepare for a possible court battle.

The company sent a stenographer to record a series of meetings on the trash issue sponsored by the city. Dewey’s has also hired Gloria Zigner & Associates, a public relations firm in the county, to tell its side of the story.

In addition, the company contracted with a polling firm to gauge how Mission Viejo residents feel about their garbage service.

The contract dispute started in August, 1990, when the City Council bucked a roomful of angry residents and voted 3 to 2 to approve the franchise without competitive bidding.

When three new council members were voted into office last November, Curtis persuaded the council to look into ways to break the contract or renegotiate a new deal with Dewey’s.

“We hope to start a dialogue,” Curtis said. “We really think that litigation should be the last resort.”