Led San Bernardino County into a Huge Conflict of Interest
Puts a Law Firm Into Conclict too!
Blindly Defends It's Employees and Even Hires Wanted Fugitives!
Manipulates the American Judicial System
Hide Dangers in its Landfill Feasibility Studies
Make a Public Comment or read them or send us some e-mail
"Investigators also asked to Cadiz phone records, which Reznik said showed calls to and from Cadiz's desert farm had been routed to the Irvine offices of Waste Management Inc. and the Irvine home of the company's Rail-Cycle project manager Franklin Glen Odell." (PE 3/23/97)
WMI bribed San Bernardino County, California with $26-30 million (DB 3/21/97)*. Of course WMI and the county government deny its is a bribe. It is just business as usual. In Dayton, Ohio it was a $24 million deal. In both cases this is what the government gets if they agree to the WMI proposal. The government choices, they claim, are not influenced by these huge sums of money! We know better. We know it is just like the ancient scriptures concern for bribery (Dt: ). So we call it bribery!
In the California case WMI got the county government to agree to sending huge amounts of waste east into the desert. Their only trouble is that they chose to locate the site over a water supply to a large local farming company. The citizens so far have stopped the proposed landfill with the help of over $1 million spent by the farming company. Now, all the WMI corruption is coming out (read on).
"'One of the attractions to the county is that the project would bring in significant revenue, and we are just coming out of the recession,' said Paul Mordy, a San Bernardino County deputy counsel." (CT) 3/13/97)
"Lauricella (more about him letter) claims Irvine-based Waste Management Inc., a partner in Rail-Cycle bribed county officials into voting for the project." PE 3/25/97)
"'The county is so much in bed with Rail Cycle (WMI/ATSF) ... I can see the conflict of interest,' said Robert Pugsley, a law professor at Southwestern University in Los Angeles." (S 3/13/97)
"The sticking point is the conflicting motivations the county's strange situation creates. San Bernardino County could earn an estimated $30 million in taxes if the trash-hauling plan is implemented - money that presumably would also benefit the District Attorney's Office." (DB editorial 3/21/97)
"When the Board of Supervisors approved Rail-Cycle in 1995, one of the conditions of the project was that Rail-Cycle indemnify and defend the county and Board of Supervisors against any civil litigation. ...Deputy County counsel Paul Mordy doesn't see any problem (conflict of interest). 'The county is not a monolith. There is the Board of Supervisors, independently elected. There is the district attorney, an independent, elected official. There is the sheriff, an independent, elected official.' But Assistant District Attorney Dan Lough noted that county employees represented by the county counsel in the civil suit (Cadiz) were among those named in search warrants in the criminal case." (PE 3/25/97)
"Legal experts and critics of the project have suggested the county cannot simultaneously work with the company (Rail-Cycle) on the civil matter and prosecute a criminal case. 'You've got the fox guarding the chickens,' said Ben Reznik, an attorney representing the Rancho Cucamonga Cadiz Land Co which owns land near the dump site and filed a $75 million suit against the county over the project's approval. 'It's a difficult issue, and the criminal issue raises new questions I hadn't asked before,' said county Supervisor Larry Walker, one of three board members who are concerned about the issue. 'It's really news to us and we really haven't responded institutionally.'" (DB 3/15/97)
Richard C. Solomon, a Southwestern professor who teaches legal ethics, said public perception is also an issue. 'Because they have the relationship with the company, are they going to throw the prosecution?' Solomon said. 'The public has a very legitimate question here. Is there a hidden agenda? ... I would questions the DA's involvement even in the investigation,' he said. 'The county is much better off asking the AG (state Attorney General) to get involved, whenever there's a conflict.'" DB 3/14/97)
"It is impossible to escape the appearance that one arm of the county is conducting an investigation that might work against the interest of the rest of the county - and to some extent, against the district attorney's own budgetary interests" (DA funds come from Supervisors!). (DB 3/21/97)
"In the criminal case, the San Bernardino county district attorney is the plaintiff, and the Christensen law firm represents the defendant. 'It is an odd circumstance,' Assistant District Attorney Dan Lough said. Replacing the county counsel with a contract law firm to represent the county's interests in the civil case wouldn't help. The Christensen firm would still be an ally and a foe to the county in separate cases involving Rail-Cycle." (S 3/13/97)
"Cadiz's attorney, Ben Reznik, said the alleged theft included lists of Cadiz investors and shareholders. 'It looks like this was a retaliatory effort, trying to financially ruin Cadiz' to thwart the company's opposition to the landfill, he said." (LAT 3/11/97)
"Waste Management Vice President and General Counsel John Ray said he views the investigation as a minor distraction. He said the company expects to see the project in which they have already invested millions of dollars come to become a reality. 'This is a good project. We just have to avoid all of the background noise,' Ray said.
"Rail-Cycle, a joint venture between Waste Management and the Santa Fe Railroad, was one of at least three proposals that surfaced in the late 1980s and early '90s to haul garbage on trains from the Los Angeles basin to dumps in remote desert locations." (PE 3/23/97)
on blindly endorsing employees - "WMX's first response was to stand by its man, protesting that he was a straight arrow who wouldn't have broken the law. ... The basic rule in crisis communications is 'tell it all, tell it fast, get everything out immediately,' said Frank Corrado, president of Communications for Management in Chicago.
"Failure to address a crisis properly can lead 'first to marketplace problems and - if it is a crisis of confidence and trust - all the way to the death of an organization,' said Chet Burchett, executive vice president of Edelman Worldwide. ...
"The WMX response is strategically incorrect, Corrado said. ... 'In a scenario like this when there are several law enforcement authorities involved, the prudent thing for the company is to indicate that it is trying to conduct its own investigation rather than to spring to the defense of the employee. The company owes it to its stockholders and to the public to take this very seriously.'
"Robert Dilenschneider, chairman of the New York public relations and consulting firm bearing his name, said WMX also should be 'very aggressive in communication with employees, because employees will all have questions about the company's ethics. The key is to act as fast as you possibly can,' he said, because once the rumors start spreading, one rumor compounds the next and you're chasing goblins." (CT 3/13/97)
Dilenschneider failed to realize is that WMX company ethics are so corrupt at the highest executive levels that any such recommended ethical comments will be laughed at and corrupt business would go on as usual!
On the hiring of a sought fugitive, Joseph Lauricella, alias Tony Bergschneider, Tony Berg and Tony Mar. "Lauricella is in Santa Clara (California) County jail on drug and other charges unrelated to the Rail-Cycle investigation. ... After Lauricella was arrested last year in Santa Clara County, Lauricella contacted Cadiz. In an apparent attempt to trade information on Rail Cycle's activities in exchange for help with the drug charges he faced. 'We had an opportunity to interview this guy,' said Cadiz Land Co lawyer Benjamin Reznik. 'His whole role was that he was hired by Waste Management to be the community organizer and to basically pretend to be a Twentynine Palms resident in support of the Rail-Cycle project. He organized it by giving money to people to come testify at the hearings. He distributed cash to people.' ... The FBI and investigators from the district attorney's office have also joined the investigation." (VDP 3/11/97)
"An internal Rail Cycle document suggests the trash company hired a Northern California resident specifically to live in San Bernardino county's High Desert to counter local opposition to the dump project. ... In a 1996 letter sent to Tony Bergschneider at a San Jose address, Rail Cycle project director Stu Clark offered to pay Bergschneider $1,500 a month plus expenses to 'represent the local community as appropriate in relations with the press and external communities and public agencies.' ... Bergschneider was also required to 'maintain a residence in the Amboy-Cadiz area.' The document , dated May 18, 1995, is signed by Bergschneider and Clark. ...
Opponents said the letter supports their contention Rail Cycle set up a community organization under Lauricella's guidance to push the project. ... Charley Shamhart of DERT said Lauricella was hired shortly after Rail Cycle executives met with her group. 'They wanted their own fake "Green" organization,' she said. Rail Cycle officials did not dispute the document's authenticity." (DB 3/22/97)
"Lauricella told another Cadiz attorney, John Bowman, that he had 'delivered cash payments to local residents in exchange for their favorable testimony during public hearings' before the county Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, Bowman stated in a declaration Cadiz filed with the court. ... Lauricella also said he was involved, at the direction of waste Management, in making illegal contributions to at least one county official in exchange for a favorable vote on Rail-Cycle, according to an attorneys declaration submitted to the court by Cadiz." (PE 3/23/97)
"At Wednesday's hearing Deputy District Attorney Grover Merritt and WMX's Peter Sheridan of the Christensen law firm squared off over the claim of confidential privilege. In cases involving attorneys, doctors and ministers where clients have an assumption of confidentiality, the law allows judges to appoint a neutral 'special master' in the particular field to review materials and see if they would violate the privilege. "Investigators may not use a set of handwritten notes and a county internal memo to build a corporate spying case against trash giant WMX Technologies Inc., a judge lulled monday morning.
"Sheridan wanted Judge Welch to allow 10 people from his law firm to go through the documents and records - including some on floppy disks - and retrieve any materials that could be classified as part of the attorney-client privilege.
"That would be akin to the fox guarding the hen house,' Merritt said. Over Sheridan's objection, Judge Welch appointed retired San Bernardino county Superior court Judge Duke Rouse to review the documents. ... Sheridan also wanted all documents taken from Rail-Cycle Project Manager Franklin Glen Odell's Irvine home to be examined to se if they qualify for the attorney-client privilege - even though Odell is not an attorney.
"Merritt argued against including Odell's residence within the scope of the special master duties. 'Odell is at the center of the bull's eye. ... The bottom line is if Odell is not a lawyer, he is entitled to no more career protection than any dope dealer in Ontario.' But Welch aside that because of Odell's position within the corporation, he may have in his possession some documents that could be claimed under the attorney-client privilege." (S 3/13/97)
"Sherman Oaks attorney Benjamin Reznik, who represents Cadiz in its suit against the county, questioned WMX spokesman Bill Plunkett's statements. 'Everything could not possibly be covered by an attorney-client privilege, so I don't understand way Waste Management is trying to seal all the documents seized by the law enforcement agencies,' Reznik said. 'If in fact they are claiming to be fully cooperating with the investigations.'" (DB 3/13/97)
"Judge J. Michael Welch said the documents, seized from county planning offices by sheriff's deputies March 7 and under seal since then, are confidential under rules protecting attorney/client communications. State law prevents police agencies from reviewing such documents without court approval. ...
Before the ruling Merritt argued that because the notes were made by County Planning Director Valery Pilmer during a closed-door meeting of the county Board of supervisors, they are not protected. 'We believe there is no way notes taken under that scenario can be privileged,' said Merritt. ...
"After reading the documents Monday morning, Welch agreed. 'I think they all fall within the attorney-client privilege,' Welch said. Prosecutor Grover Merritt said he will appeal the ruling and asked Welch to reseal the records until a higher court can review them. ...
Also on Monday, Welch appointed Arthwell C. Hayton to review more than 150 boxes of material seized from WMX offices in Irvine by sheriff's deputies. At the time of the seizure, WMX lawyers claimed many of the documents were covered by the attorney-client privilege so the material was placed off limits until it could be reviewed by an officer of the court." (S 3/18/97)
"At one point, Rail-Cycle officials filed papers to move the two civil cases to federal courts to see the federal court remand the case back to state courts. Both judges in Barstow refused themselves from the cases, which were than transferred to the central court in San Bernardino and the courtroom of Judge Cart Davis who recently issued an order consolidating the two cases." (HDS 2/19/97)
"In 1993, the county issued permits for buildings on the site that would enable Cadiz officials to expand their farming operations. But the company failed to move forward within three years of the permits and asked the county for a time extension. County Planning Director Valery Pilmer granted the extension request. 'There was not any new information that surfaced and that required reexamining the proposal,' she said. But Rail Cycle officials disagreed and have appealed the decision to the Planning Commission. ... Cadiz officials criticized the appeal as the latest anti-Cadiz move by WMX Technologies Inc., parent company of the Rail Cycle project. 'WMX Technologies has filed a frivolous and unsubstantiated land use appeal,' said Marvin Shaw, Cadiz development manager. 'We can only assume the basis for WMX Technologies' appeal is in retaliation to Cadiz' current lawsuit.'" (DB 2/26/97)
"A key turning point in the Cadiz case could come July 11, when Cadiz plans to go to Superior Court, contending in a civil lawsuit that Waste Management altered documents. 'One of the critical issues in siting this landfill is the issue of earthquakes,' said Benjamin Reznik,. an attorney representing Cadiz, which operates a farm near the proposed landfill. The San Bernardino county Board of Supervisors approved the project, designed to rail-haul garbage from southern California, in November 1995, based on documents srowing no earthquake faults in the area.
"After suing to challenge the ruling, said Reznik, discovery procedures showed that a chart was changed so that it no longer indicated the presence of 11 earthquake faults. This alteration, Reznik said, ' created a record that is false, misleading and corrupted..'
"If the board of supervisors had known about the faults, he added, 'they would have had a hard time justifying voting for this landfill.'" (CT 3/14/97)
"WMX employee Franklin Odell, 55, project manager for its Waste Management unit's proposed Rail-Cycle project, was arrested Friday by San Bernardino county sheriffs after a six-month investigation, officials said. He was also charged with criminal conspiracy. Sheriffs and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation also executed a search warrant that day at WMX's California headquarters in Irvine, seizing files and Odell's computer. They carried out another 15 search warrants state wide." (B 3/12/97)
"Corporate snooping on rivals or foes is as old as business itself. Although it may be as innocent as overhearing a conversation at a a restaurant or visiting a competitor's booth at a trade show, some companies go to extremes to get a competitive edge. ...Legislators and law enforcement officials are focusing new attention on corporate espionage as global competition intensifies. ... The arrest of WMX Technologies Inc. executive Franklin Odell on charges of wiretapping and stealing computer data from a company opposed to a WMX plan for a California garbage dump is just the latest case to grab headlines. WMX denies any wrongdoing." (CTO - 3/13/97)
"Clean Desert Water Coalition spokesman Paul Woodruff, a former state assemblyman, said he received threatening phone calls during the months he was making speeches against the dump.. 'There's so much rotten in Denmark when it comes to that company, and the way they operate,' Woodruff said.
"The dirty tricks went so far as an attempt to deceive voters, charged one man who worked on the anti-dump campaign. Joseph W. Brady, a Victorville developer who spoke to community groups on behalf of the dump opponents, said WMX deliberately named campaign committees to sound like Cadiz's committees. Cadiz organized the Clean Desert Water Coalition in 1995, and Waste Management put together the Coalition for Clean drinking Water in 1996. The San Bernardino County Taxpayers Association teamed up with Cadiz to fight the business tax measure in 1995 and Waste Management created the Taxpayers Protection Association of San Bernardino County in 1996 to aldvocate the measure, which would have provided the funding mechanism for the dump." (S 3/13/97)