Trash Bids Challenged

A lawyer for Trinity Transportation, the Central Islip firm that has had the contract from East Hampton Town for the last two years to remove trash that cannot be recycled or composted, has accused two bigger competitors of bidding "irregularities" in trying to win the 1997 contract, worth more than $1 million a year.

Trinity is a regional company fighting for position on Long Island among a growing number of national and multinational megacarters. It earned nearly $1.2 million from East Hampton in 1996. Its contract expired on Jan. 31, but was extended last week by the Town Board through Feb. 28.

Two Other Firms

In a Feb. 10 letter to Town Supervisor Cathy Lester, Anthony E. Core of Westbury, the lawyer, accused Residential Services, a Great Neck firm, and Waste Management of New York, based in Brooklyn, of what he called "substantial" bidding "irregularities," and suggested they be disqualified. Trinity then would be next in line for the contract.

Trinity has been charging the town $54 a ton for its remaining trash, taking it to a private recycler or an incinerator, depending on market conditions. It inherited the contract from a sister firm, Jet Sanitation, which charged $65 a ton.

Supervisor Lester was at the annual Association of Towns convention in Manhattan this week and unavailable for comment. Robert Savage, the town attorney, said yesterday he had referred Mr. Core's letter to an outside lawyer, Frank Isler of the Riverhead firm of Smith, Finkelstein, Lundberg, Isler & Yakaboski.

The Bids

In proposals opened two weeks ago, Residential Services made the lowest bid, $49.90, and Waste Management came in at $55.94. Trinity bid $56.43. State law requires the town to award the contract to the lowest reputable bidder who meets all the specifications. Five bids were submitted in all.

Among the specifications is one that requires the carter to bring organic waste into the town composting plant as "fuel"; another is that it take away recycled newspaper for a nominal fee. Town officials have begun sampling the bidders' organic waste, to be sure it would meet safety standards.

Mr. Core's letter stated that his client's competitors were owned by the same firm, Waste Management, an Illinois-based division of WMX Technologies, which is a multinational conglomerate. He alleged that this was a violation of the noncollusion clause in the town's bid specifications, required by state law.

Islip Venture

He added, however, that his intention was not to accuse the firms of wrongdoing but to remind the town it had the responsibility to avoid "the appearance of impropriety."

Will Flower, a vice president of Waste Management of New York, confirmed his company was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Waste Management. Robert Donno, the head of Residential Services, said his was owned entirely by Eastern Environmental Services, one of the largest garbage handlers on the East Coast.

Common Trend

They told The Star in separate interviews their only connection was a joint venture between Waste Management of New York and a sister firm of Residential Services, called Residential Services of Suffolk. It holds a contract to collect garbage from about 20,000 houses in theTown of Islip.

The connection was spelled out in their respective bid proposals, as required. They also explained the joint venture was a contractual obligation left over from a company acquired last year by Waste Management, and said other connections between them had been ended some time ago.

Waste Management and Eastern Environmental are major players in the consolidation movement that has swept across the solid waste industry in this country, and each is known for gobbling up small and medium-sized companies.

"It's happening all over. The corner drug store is competing with C.V.S. and Revco. . . . It's good for competition and it's bringing prices down," said Mr. Donno.

Last Frontier

Mr. Flower said his company, which recently won the contract to run Brookhaven Town's recycling plant, was eyeballing East Hampton as part of a plan to saturate the region by offering competitive prices, acquiring quality companies, and by helping municipalities find markets for their recyclables - a field East Hampton has found particularly rocky, he noted.

"Long Island is one of the last markets of the United States where we have not been, and where we are growing," he said, agreeing that the East End was the Island's last frontier.

The owners of local carting companies were bitter when companies like Trinity started showing up here, saying that smaller local firms were better equipped to offer quality service. Mr. Core sounded a similar complaint this week.

"The town must pick a vendor with experience in East Hampton. . . . A bigger company wouldn't have the town's true interests at heart. And, let's say it's a very demanding community," he said.

Noncollusion Clause

The noncollusion clause signed by Mr. Donno of Residential and Charles Gusmano, Waste Management of New York's director of business development, states each bid proposal was "independently arrived at without collusion with any other bidder or with any competitor or potential competitor."

Trinity's lawyer called Residential and Waste "competitors as both have submitted proposals," but alleged they "have common ownership interests."

He further charged that Residential's $49.90 a ton bid was below cost, calling it "a red herring" in a subsequent telephone interview.

"If they find in favor of either Waste or Residential, Trinity will abide by their decision. All we did was bring out the facts," he said.

Vehement Denials

Both Mr. Flower, the Waste Management vice president, and Mr. Donno of Residential vehemently denied discussing their bid proposals at any time.

"I don't have lunch, dinner, or sleep with Mr. Donno," said Mr. Flower. "This is an example of an attorney grasping at straws to get his client's very high bid selected. Guess what? It's not going to work."

He added his firm was "growing very rapidly in New York City and Long Island. They are shaking in their boots and saying whatever they have to to cast aspersions."

Mr. Donno offered a similar assessment, and said he would stand by his firm's bid of $49.90 a ton. Eastern Environmental owns landfills in Pennsylvania, giving it a financial edge over carting firms that would have to pay a tipping fee to some other company's landfill or incinerator.

"We would do well with this contract," he said.

Federal Probe

Meanwhile, Mr. Flower cast some aspersions of his own. "Trinity, with its association to Jamaica Ash, should be the last company to raise questions of collusion," he said in a telephone conversation.

Trinity, founded four years ago, is the long hauler on contracts where Jamaica Ash and Rubbish Removal is the collector. Jamaica Ash, along with its principal, Emedio Fazzini, were among the many defendants in a 1989 Federal racketeering case.

Trinity also shares ownership of a Central Islip transfer station with Jet Sanitation and is part owner of the Omni recycling center in Babylon.

The racketeering case involved members of the Lucchese and Gambino crime families, the region's three major trade organizations, the Teamsters, and several carting companies and their owners. Earlier criminal charges against Mr. Fazzini had been dropped, and he became the first carter to volunteer for a Federal monitoring program that continues to keep watch over the carting industry on Long Island, said Mr. Core.

Trinity was not part of the probe and is not being monitored, and Jamaica Ash has never been involved in bid rigging, he added.

Adam Deutsch, an investigator with the monitoring program, said none of the bidders for East Hampton's contract was being monitored. In addition to Trinity, Waste Management, and Residential Services, the other bidders were R.P.S. Environmental, based in Brooklyn, and American Ref-Fuel of Uniondale.