Sunday, May 19, 1996
Waste Files, Forensic Intelligence Hub-Page; Jhéön & Associates, Stephen P. Dresch, Chairman
Sunday, May 19, 1996
By Paige St. John
Detroit Journal Staff Writer
City Management Corp. is now the front-runner in a bidding war beset with controversy. It could put the Detroit garbage company in the trash business at Chicago's back door.
Will County, Illinois, officials have ranked City Management ahead of two national rivals, Waste Manage-ment Inc. and Browning-Ferris Inc. (BFI), to open a giant landfill at the Joliet Arsenal, next to a national tall-grass prairie reserve and south of Chicago.
City Management's proposal to bring out-of-state waste to what would be Illinois' largest landfill could net the company as much as $1 billion over the next 20 years, according to county consultants.
The company won the endorsement of a county selection committee at the end of April. A public hearing is scheduled for early June. The Will County Board of Commissioners will then make the final decision.
County officials are awaiting additional information on one of the landfill bidders. Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow last month asked the landfill selection committee to give him time to seek release of a report from another state, saying it contained important information about a bidder.
Glasgow refused to name the company. Other county officials told the Detroit Sunday Journal they believe it regards City Management. The company applied in 1990 to do business in New Jersey but withdrew its request in 1994.
The state's background check on City Management remained unfinished, according to a representative of the office of New Jersey Attorney General Deborah Poritzis. New Jersey conducted similar background checks of Waste Management and BFI. Those investigations were completed, and both companies received their state licenses.
On Tuesday, Assistant State's Attorney Phil Mock told the Will County Public Works Committee he traveled to New Jersey to review the document. Mock told the Sunday Journal on Wednesday that he is reviewing the material and comparing it with sworn statements made in the bid process.
Will County's landfill selection process has been rife with problems. Illinois newspapers have reported that landfill committee members met secretly with City Management lobbyists. The Daily Southtown reported that City Management had entered the bidding process with the help of a county board member who was contacted by a friend in business with City Management President Anthony Soave. The newspaper also reported the county board's chief legal adviser on the landfill was living in a home owned by a City Management lobbyist.
City Management has said neither the company nor its Illinois lobbyists have done anything improper.
Glasgow, the state's attorney, assembled a county grand jury to investigate the landfill lobbying. He turned over the inquiry last week to the Illinois attorney general after it was disclosed Glasgow met privately with a lobbyist for another landfill contender.
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