By Lyn Jensen, Carson Reporter
Carson’s long-time trash hauler Waste Management is hauling Carson into Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging the hauler was dumped for a rival in what court documents call a “pay-to-play” scheme in violation of Carson’s own municipal code.
USA Waste, which also does business as Waste Management, filed a trio of related lawsuits in May, collectively making a number of explosive allegations, including that the process was tainted by “pay-to-play” donations to “a charity run by Mayor Al Robles” and there was improper consideration of numerous criteria outside the scope of the original request for proposals. Another allegation is that Carson responded insufficiently to a Public Records Act request.
Waste Management sought an injunction against the rival’s contract on June 5, but Judge James C. Chalfant — the same judge who recently ordered Robles removed from the Water Replenishment District — refused. The next court date is scheduled for March 26, 2019.
“Right now we’re in discovery,” said Philip Allan Trajan Perez, representing the dumped trash hauler.
Perez noted another bizarre feature in this sequence of events, “Waste Resources Inc. was the bid put in, and all references are to Waste Resources Inc. but the contract they [the city] eventually did was with Waste Resources Technology.” He said the same entity should be named in both the original bid and in whatever contract is eventually rewarded.
According to the court documents, “the City acknowledges that it refused to follow its own purchasing ordinance” but is arguing all trash-hauling regulation is covered by a separate ordinance, not by its purchasing ordinance.
The current 15-year contract, which runs out June 30, dates from 2003. That contact was entered into following an episode that involved criminal wrongdoing and a different trash hauler. The FBI raided then-Mayor Daryl Sweeney’s home and led him away in handcuffs. Then-council members Raunda Frank and Manual Ontal were also caught in the FBI net.
Partly because of evidence Ontal supplied, the three were found to have been involved in a corrupt bidding process that favored a rival trash hauler, including a cash-for-three-council-votes scheme. Eventually, Sweeney was sent to federal prison for 71 months. Frank received five years probation.
Concerning the latest trash-hauling contract, Carson began soliciting bids last July. Seven companies, including Waste Management, EDCO, and Waste Resources Inc. responded to the Request for Proposal.
A hired consulting firm, HR Green, eliminated three bidders outright—which Waste Management charges is itself a violation–and submitted the remainder to “[Robles’] ad-hoc review committee.”
Waste Management charges here the city violated its own procurement procedures, “Rather than objectively considering the stated criteria” in the Request for Proposal, “the city applied an ever-shifting set of criteria and made obvious factual errors.”
“In the present case, the City abused its discretion by disregarding the procurement ordinance, and further, by considering material outside the scope of the RFP without disclosing those criteria to the RFP applicants,” the suit alleges.
Waste Management argues it scored highest in the criteria outlined by the request for proposal but the committee only forwarded bids by Waste Resources and EDCO, both with lower scores, to the council.
At a Dec. 5 public hearing, according to a court document, Robles asked if EDCO had followed through with a promised financial donation to the Carson Community Foundation, which Robles chairs.
Robles, apparently not getting an answer he liked, then said he favored Waste Resources over EDCO because EDCO had not shown enough “engagement” with the Carson community.
The city awarded the bid to Waste Resources Inc., Robles said, because of a partnership with Progen, an electric vehicle manufacturer that might open a Carson facility.