SHOWDOWN OVER SUNSHINE MAYOR BACKS CONTRACT EXTENSION WHILE VOWING TO FIX TRASH POLICY.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

In a last-minute bid to win support for the city's Sunshine Canyon Landfill deal, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa promised on Thursday to carry out sweeping long-term changes in trash policy that would sharply reduce the need for dumps in urban areas over time.

Villaraigosa, in a letter to North Valley Coalition President Wayde Hunter late Thursday, said he remains committed to end Los Angeles' use of urban landfills but believes the lack of alternatives and potential for soaring costs for trash service has forced the city's hand to extend the contract with the Granada Hills dump for five more years.

Hunter dismissed the mayor's arguments, saying the city has another year to find other solutions to the trash problem.

``I think it's a cop-out,'' he said.

The mayor's dramatic bid for support comes as the City Council is set to vote today on whether to extend the controversial and unpopular contract extension with Browning-Ferris Industries, which operates Sunshine Canyon.

With two seats empty and two members absent, the outcome is far from certain as eight votes are needed to approve the extension. Council President Alex Padilla and Councilman Greig Smith, who represent North Valley districts, are on record against the deal. Downtown Councilwoman Jan Perry wants major changes in city trash policy but is seen as a swing vote.

So the issue likely will be decided by how Valley Councilmen Dennis Zine and Tony Cardenas vote. Zine is regarded as unpredictable on this issue while Cardenas, who held a fundraiser Thursday hosted by a BFI lobbyist and others, was seen as likely to back the extension.

Clearly worried about the outcome of the vote, Villaraigosa waded into the issue, saying the failure of city officials to develop viable alternatives to Sunshine Canyon leaves the city no choice.

``I am urging the members of the Los Angeles City Council not to put our residents in a situation where we either have no place to take our trash in eleven months, or could be held hostage by waste management companies that could charge us a gate rate that is nearly double the rate we currently pay at Sunshine Canyon,'' Villaraigosa wrote to Hunter.

``I am urging them to make the tough choice, the right choice, and vote to extend the five-year contract at Sunshine Canyon while we continue to work to find viable alternatives to get the City of Los Angeles out of urban landfills.''

Villaraigosa acknowledged his previous opposition to the contract extension, but said when the alternatives proposed by Waste Management, operator of Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley, to use transfer stations and remote landfills fell through, no other ``reliable, predictable, financially responsible'' options remained.

He said he doesn't have authority under the charter to sign or veto the proposed extension.

Granada Hills North Neighborhood Council board member Kim Thompson said Villaraigosa went went back on his commitment to the community.

``He made a promise and he broke it.''

City Hall remained abuzz throughout the day as elected officials - particularly council members in the Valley - jockeyed over who would take the political hit of voting for a deal that has long raised the community's ire.

The scramble and consternation were set off by beliefs that Perry will oppose the deal. Perry, a proponent of the city's investing in recycling technologies and other alternatives, declined to say how she would vote.

Her vote could be crucial with Valley Councilwoman Wendy Greuel absent from today's council session on personal business.

Smith - whose district includes the landfill and who has led efforts against the extension in favor of a plan to transition the city out of urban landfills - and Alex Padilla, whose district is across Interstate 5 from the landfill, both said they would oppose the extension.

Cardenas, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, held a fundraiser Thursday night for his officeholder account that was being hosted by lobbyists, business people and environmentalists.

BFI's Berghoff said he hasn't lobbied the city on the Sunshine Canyon Landfill contract for two weeks after a corporate decision was made to let the matter take its course. He said the fundraiser - which, he added, he wasn't attending personally - had nothing to do with the contract extension.

Zine refused to disclose how he will vote and called community activist Thompson ``a liar'' for saying he told her Wednesday that he intended to vote for the extension.

``I'm mad because we only need four votes (to block the extension) and we can't even get the Valley to side with us,'' Thompson said in an interview.

Smith, Padilla and a representative from Villaraigosa and the City Attorney's Office sat down recently with BFI to renegotiate a handful of contract provisions, including Smith's concern that Los Angeles could be penalized for diverting trash to alternative technologies.

The new five-year contract would allow the city to divert rubbish to recycling and alternative technologies without losing its low-price guarantee at the landfill. Smith - who said he plans to try several tactics, including bringing a motion out of committee today that would phase out the city's use of Sunshine Canyon over five years - said the lobbying over the contract extension has been intense.

Greg Loughnane, BFI's Los Angeles district manager, said the company wants a quick answer on its contract with the city, which brings about 3,500 tons per day to the landfill.

``If they don't use us, we want to market it to other jurisdictions out there,'' Loughnane said.

Bureau of Sanitation Director Rita Robinson met with a number of council members in recent days to talk about alternatives - or the lack of alternatives - if the city does not renew the contract.

``At this point, we know the outcome. If we get out (of Sunshine Canyon Landfill) we're in the spot market for landfills,'' Robinson said. ``It's going to be more money and potential upset to service.''

Staff Writer Kerry Cavanaugh contributed to this story.

Beth Barrett, [phone]

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com

THE DETAILS

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has offered several key commitments to change how the city disposes of its trash:

--City will implement a recycling program for all apartments, town homes, condominiums and commercial property by 2008.

--Bureau of Sanitation ordered to establish a Solid Waste Integrated Resource Plan, to include the North Valley Coalition among its stakeholders. The plan is due in two years.

--Alternative technologies will be developed, with the first Alternative Technology/Resource Recovery facility operational by 2010.

--A rail-haul system will be developed to dispose of the city's residual waste in remote landfills.

--The city's entire fleet of sanitation trucks will be converted to clean fuel by 2010.

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THE DETAILS (see text)