Dip in Dumping at County’s Landfill Generates Proposal to Lower Fees

SANTA ANA —  The county would slash its $35-per-ton landfill dumping fee by as much as 23% under a proposal to be considered next week by the Board of Supervisors.

The plan is in response to the recent defections of several landfill users, who have found less expensive jurisdictions to handle their trash since the county dumping fee was increased last summer.

The city of Orange now uses a landfill in Los Angeles County for most of its garbage, and other communities--including Seal Beach, Los Alamitos, Cypress and Stanton--are dumping portions of their trash in out-of-county landfills as well.

“We need to maintain our current customers. To do that, we need comparable gate fees,” said Sue Gordon, spokeswoman for the county’s Integrated Waste Management Department. “The $35 fee was appropriate at the time. We think now we can look at a reduction.”

An aggressive cost-savings program by the department, coupled with reductions in regulatory costs, make a fee reduction possible, Gordon said.

Over the objections of many cities and trash haulers, the Board of Supervisors voted in July to increase landfill fees from $22.75 to $35. Officials said the hike was needed to make up for increased regulatory costs and a decline in landfill business.

On Tuesday, the county’s Waste Management Commission discussed four possible options: Keeping the fee at $35 per ton or reducing it to $31.75, $29.75 or $27. Any of the proposed fees would cover landfill operating costs through at least 2002. The lower charges, however, would leave the system with a smaller cash reserve.

The commission stopped short Tuesday of recommending a choice to the Board of Supervisors. Instead, it asked its finance subcommittee to examine several questions raised during the meeting.

Supervisor Don Saltarelli, a vocal backer of a fee cut, said the current charge places the county landfills at a competitive disadvantage.

“We need to run these landfills with good, sound private enterprise principles,” he said. “We need a price that will be competitive. We don’t want to lose business to other areas.”

The proposal comes a month after the Sanitation Districts of Orange County proposed buying the entire landfill system for $300 million. The sewer agency has also promised to slash landfill fees.

Supervisor William G. Steiner said he hoped the fee proposal would not interfere with the sale, which is expected to come before the board for a vote later this month.

“The best way to bring household trash bills down is to sell the landfills to the sanitation districts,” Steiner said. Having one agency handle both solid and liquid waste, he added, would result in operational savings that can be used to cut trash rates.

Steiner also questioned how a county-imposed fee cut would play on Wall Street, where some have already raised concerns about whether the county’s landfill revenue projections are too optimistic. Money from landfill users is one of the sources the county is using to repay bondholders who took heavy losses in the Orange County bankruptcy.

“We don’t want to send mixed messages to Wall Street,” Steiner said.

Saltarelli said reducing the fees could actually result in higher landfill revenue because more customers would use the county’s dumps. He also criticized the sanitation districts’ acquisition proposal, saying it doesn’t provide enough benefits for the county.

Also on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted to accept $1 million from the Hartford Fire Insurance Co. as payment of a policy designed to protect the county against dishonest and criminal acts committed by employees.

The county submitted the insurance claim a year ago in response to the actions of former Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron and his one-time deputy, Matthew Raabe. The county’s $1.64 billion in investment pool losses led it to declare bankruptcy on Dec. 6, 1994.

Citron has since pleaded guilty to six felony counts of securities fraud and misappropriation of funds. Raabe still awaits trial on six felony counts.

The “crime policy” includes coverage for “public employee dishonesty, loss of faithful performance, forgery or alteration, theft” and other misdeeds, according to a county report.

One million dollars is the maximum the county could have collected under the policy, which cost about $34,000 a year.

The county will share the payment with school districts and other public agencies that were required by law to place money in the investment pool that collapsed.