Deal With Orange Trash Hauler Debated

The Orange City Council hoped to wash its hands Tuesday of the trash collection controversy that has rocked local politics for nearly two years.

In a meeting with public comment that lasted into the night, council members weighed a multimillion-dollar settlement with the Hambarian family, whose company, Orange Disposal Services Inc., was the city’s exclusive trash collector for four decades.

The Hambarians also own Orange Resource Recovery Systems, launched in 1994 to reduce landfill waste in the city through recycling. Under terms of the settlement, the Hambarians will have to sell the companies to the city’s new trash-hauling contractor, USA Waste of California Inc., City Atty. David A. De Berry said.

“This is definitely history in the making,” Councilman Michael Alvarez said. “This marks the end of an era.”

The Hambarians, who collected Orange’s trash for 43 years, have agreed to pay the city $9.3 million to resolve all fraud and contract issues. But the settlement will not preclude criminal prosecution of Jeffery Hambarian, De Berry said.

After a two-year investigation by the Orange County district attorney’s office, Hambarian, the former vice president of the recycling company, will be tried later this year on 65 felony counts, including grand theft, fraud and commercial bribery. He is accused of bilking the city out of $4.2 million over 13 years, De Berry said.

Council members Tuesday also approved a trash contract with USA Waste of California Inc., which will begin serving Orange in June.

Key features of the contract include a 10-year subsidy of rates, courtesy of the settlement funds, for residents and businesses on their monthly trash bill; and moving from the existing manual trash collection service to a three-can automated system--one for refuse, one for recycling and one for yard waste.