Contractor Cited 3 Times Still Awarded County Pacts

Despite citing a contractor three times in the past five years on suspicion of dumping everything from dirt to old cars into a Somis flood plain, county officials have awarded his firm more than $2.3 million since 1993 to clear storm debris, records show.

But under state law, the county’s legal advisor said he has no power to bar contractor Tom A. Staben--most recently cited last month for material dumped next to the Arroyo Simi--from bidding on county projects.

The state considers a contractor “responsible” as long as he or she has a license, insurance and a bonding agency guaranteeing payment, County Counsel James McBride said. Only serious violations would render the contractor ineligible.

“It’s weak,” county Supervisor John K. Flynn said Friday, noting that he has fought the same battle over contractors who have failed to pay workers prevailing union wages on federally funded county projects. “It’s a terrible system,” Flynn said.

Staben, who is now working under a $994,000 public works contract to clear storm damage along Santa Ana Road, did not return phone calls Thursday and Friday.

Staben was first cited by the county Flood Control District in October 1993 for dumping soil, rubble and other material into the Arroyo Simi on his Somis farm, records show.

Code enforcement officers say they cited him in February 1997 and again April 27 after seeing old cars, tires, engines and refrigerators dumped into the stream bed.

The Arroyo Simi flows into Calleguas Creek before emptying into the environmentally sensitive Mugu Lagoon and the Pacific Ocean.

Staben also has run afoul of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the Santa Ana Road project, where federal officials say they caught him digging rocks and sediment out of the Ventura River bottom and using them for road repair.

Army Corps officials, who also have inspected Staben’s Somis ranch, temporarily stopped work on the project, said Dave Castanon, the agency’s chief regulatory officer for the region, which stretches from Ventura to Monterey.

The case is not yet resolved, Castanon said, adding that the agency’s response could range from doing nothing to pressing criminal charges.

“We have other cases still open [on Staben] that have not been resolved,” Castanon said. “There’s been more than the problems at Santa Ana Road or at Somis.”

Staben has also had problems with the city of Ventura. He was sentenced in November to three years’ probation for violating zoning restrictions at the Ventura Beach R.V. Resort, which he owns.

The previous July, Staben had been warned by city code enforcement officials that he was violating half a dozen city codes.

The alleged violations include converting a sensitive habitat zone into a lawn, adding unauthorized recreational vehicle camping sites, erecting a concrete wall in the flood plain of the Ventura River without proper permits and pouring a concrete lining into a natural channel. He also was accused of storing more than 5,000 square feet of concrete blocks at Emma Wood State Beach.

Staben eventually pleaded no contest to a charge of illegally storing concrete construction blocks in an area visible from public streets against city ordinance code, Deputy City Atty. Karl H. Berger said.

“He liked to dance on the very lip of the abyss before he backed off,” city code enforcement officer Sherry Jeffery said. “Some people like the challenge. He’s an independent. I guess you could put it that way.”