Board Votes to Start Audit of 2 Landfills

The Ventura County Waste Commission voted Thursday to launch an audit of the county’s two landfills, taking another step toward establishing a countywide trash authority.

The audit is meant to outline the costs and operations of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District, which runs the Bailard Landfill south of Ventura and Toland Landfill in Santa Paula.

It will also outline the operations of the county Solid Waste Management Department, which oversees landfill planning in the county.

The Waste Commission is working toward unifying the department with the district under a single countywide trash agency by 1995. The authority is meant to end intercity trash disputes and help the county’s 10 cities halve the trash they dump in landfills by the year 2000.

But the time frame for the audit, which must be finished by March 1, is growing ever tighter.

Once the audit is done, it must be used by July 1 to draft a reorganization plan along guidelines laid out in a bill that would establish the county trash authority. The bill must then be passed by Jan. 1, 1995, for the authority to come into existence.

The commission on Thursday named the city of Fillmore to administer the contract for the audit along guidelines to be written by the Oxnard consulting firm of Deloitte & Touche.

The commission also agreed to consider at its November meeting a recommendation that the audit be conducted by Ed McCoombs, a former Ventura city manager.

The audit will be overseen by a committee made up of Ojai City Manager Andy Belknap, Thousand Oaks Utilities Director Don Nelson, Camarillo City Manager J. William Little, Ventura County Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg and Clint Whitney, director of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District.