COUNCIL TRASHES SUNSHINE FIGHT NOT OVER; REVOTE SET FOR EARLY NEXT WEEK.

Byline: Dan Laidman Staff Writer

Sending gasps through a packed chamber and shock waves through City Hall, the Los Angeles City Council by a single vote on Friday refused to extend a controversial deal to continue sending trash to Sunshine Canyon Landfill.

Despite last-minute entreaties by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and warnings of financial burden, the City Council voted 7-4 on the deal with dump operator Browning-Ferris Industries. Eight votes - a majority of the full 15-member council - were needed to approve the contract.

But while the vote was a stunning victory for Councilman Greig Smith, who represents Granada Hills, the intense political wrangling is not over.

Under city rules for approving contracts, the item will return to the council for reconsideration Tuesday and the pressure was certain to intensify through the weekend on the members who voted no and on the two absent members, Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti, who have indicated they oppose extending the contract.

``Now comes the game of how many votes and who's here and who's not,'' said Council President Alex Padilla, who joined Smith and Councilwomen Janice Hahn and Jan Perry in opposing the deal.

Villaraigosa, who had promised in the campaign to oppose the contract, renewed his call to back the extension because the cost of trash disposal might soar since the city has failed to develop promised alternatives to Sunshine.

``I urge the City Council to reconsider the impact of increasing the cost of disposing our waste and raising residents' trash fees on our ability to provide other critical city services,'' the mayor said in a prepared statement late Friday.

Browning-Ferris Industries, which had insisted Friday was the deadline for a council decision, backed down late in the day and gave the city until Aug. 19 to renew the contract, which expires next June 30.

BFI does not want to wait for a decision ``in perpetuity,`` said Greg Loughnane, the company's Los Angeles district manager.

``We were requested by council members who supported the contract for more time to consider the matter and, in light of their support and the mayor's support, we thought it reasonable to grant the request,`` Loughnane said.

He predicted that even if the vote stands, the city would eventually have to return to Sunshine. When it does, he said, it will not qualify for the reduced rate that it has under the current contract.

``It will undoubtedly be higher - the question is how much.''

BFI has successfully revived Sunshine Canyon from the brink of political defeats despite decades of community opposition and still stands a good chance of doing so again.

Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who cast the swing opposing vote Friday, said only minutes after the meeting that she was already being lobbied by colleagues to flip-flop.

Hahn said she wouldn't rule out changing her vote if the right modifications were made to the contract. She did not spell out what those provisions would be.

The other three dissenting members - Perry, Smith and Padilla - remained strongly opposed. Valley Councilman Dennis Zine, who backed the extension, will be out of town next week so supporters will have to come up with two votes to win.

And that puts the focus on Greuel and Garcetti, who will be back, and Hahn.

Even as those three were likely to come under tremendous pressure to extend the Sunshine contract, a broad consensus was building to finally deliver on city promises to find alternatives for the nearly 4,000 tons of trash the city dumps there every day.

All sides agree that the city should move away from urban landfills, but not on the timing. Proponents of extending the contract argued that five more years at the dump would be a safety net as the city sought alternatives. Leaving the site too soon, they said, could stick the city with millions of dollars in additional costs and lead to new residential garbage fees.

Critics, though, said the city had to take dramatic action to break its long cycle of dump dependency. Neighbors of the landfill said they have suffered its foul effects for too long, although the site will remain active even without the city's business.

``We'll just figure out the way to deal with it and we'll have to find a way to foot the bill for it,'' Rita Robinson, director of the city Bureau of Sanitation, said after the vote.

Padilla appointed Smith to head a new ad hoc committee charged with planning for the switchover.

The panel will face a difficult task as at least one other major garbage disposal firm said it has no plans to fill the void that would be left by Sunshine Canyon.

``At this point, we're not interested in providing service to the city of Los Angeles for trash even after today's vote,'' said Kit Cole, spokeswoman for Waste Management, which handles some of the city's green waste.

Waste Management had earlier put in a bid when the city sought alternatives to Sunshine Canyon but the company withdrew, saying city officials took too long to make a decision.

But Oxnard-based BLT Enterprises President Bernard Huberman predicted that a number of companies, including his, would react to the City Council decision and offer a range of recycling, rail haul and alternative technologies.

``There's not going to be trash piling up on the street,'' Huberman said. ``Now that the council has made it clear that they've ended this contract with Sunshine, there's going to be some real dialogue with providers.''

Smith has proposed an ambitious long-term plan for converting to alternative waste-disposal methods. In the meantime, though, sanitation officials say the city will most likely seek other landfills around Southern California.

The move could cost $17 million or more per year as the city deals with the spot market or possibly returns to Sunshine Canyon, sanitation officials said.

Several council members raised the possibility of a residential trash disposal fee to offset that, while others suggested a mandatory recycling program.

Councilman Bernard Parks, who supported extending the contract on financial grounds, noted that as the city moves ahead with alternative sites, the dump's neighbors still will have to contend with trash arriving from other municipalities.

``If the goal is to close or stop using Sunshine Canyon we only have two options,`` he said. ``Buy it or fill it up.''

Staff Writer Kerry Cavanaugh contributed to this report.

Dan Laidman, [phone]

dan.laidman(at)dailynews.com