OEarl Ofari Hutchinson:
Richards Cons Public, Dodges N-word Forum

Letters to
The Editor

Tour of Select Schools Reveals Some Improvements, Lingering Problems

Prostitution Operations to Continue on Long Beach Boulevard, Sheriff’s Deputies Say

Tree Lighting Ceremony Lights Up the Sky

Some District Schools Have No Hot Water on Campus

Compton Judge Inducted into Legal Hall of Fame

Waste Management Sets New Schedule for Residential Trash Pickup

Sen. Barack Obama, Ludacris Meet For a Talk About Empowering Today’s Youth

Doctors Study Skin Problems of Blacks, Asians, Hispanics

Classifieds

HOME

Compton Emerges the Victor in Hub City Disposal Case
City awarded the more than $22 million it paid to Hub City before contract was terminated

By Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff Writer

The verdict is in, and the city has been awarded the more than $22 million it paid to a solid waste hauling company owned by a convicted bribery figure.

The unanimous jury verdict was handed down last Monday after just three hours of deliberation, according to Gary J., Goodstein, the city’s legal counsel for the trial.

The case, Hub City Solid Waste Services v. City of Compton, is one of the biggest civil cases in the city’s history.

Michael Aloyan, owner of Hub City Solid Waste Services Inc., filed a $20 million lawsuit against the city in October 2004 after the current city administration terminated the 15-year, no-bid, $100 million contract with the company that was approved during the Omar Bradley administration.

The city promptly filed a countersuit against Hub City and Aloyan, waging the contract broke state law. The counterclaim asked the court to both rule that the Integrated Waste Management Franchise Agreement was illegal from the get-go and that Hub City owed Compton the money the city paid the disposal company prior to the agreement’s termination.

“The jury found that the Hub City Franchise Agreement was obtained in violation of [state] Government Code Section 1090, and as a consequence was void from inception,” said Goodstein. “The jury awarded the city $22,402,759.10 on its cross-complaint, jointly and severally against Hub City and Mr. Aloyan individually.”

A 2004 independent audit revealed Aloyan on behalf of Hub City made unreported, and therefore illegal, campaign contributions totaling more than $100,000 to three of the four Compton city council members who approved the contract back in 2001.

This allowed the city to terminate the contract as per the Compton Municipal Code, which states that any contract the city enters into with an outside contractor is “subject to revocation or suspension for cause” if the holder “violates any federal or state law.”

California Government Code Section 1090 states that “an officer or employee may not make a contract in which he or she is financially interested,” and that “any participation by an officer or an employee in the process by which such a contract is developed, negotiated and executed is a violation.”

In May 2002, just over a year after Hub City’s contract with the city of Compton was approved, Aloyan pleaded guilty in federal court to partaking in a million-dollar bribe scheme with a number of elected officials in the city of Carson. According to his testimony, in September 2001 he offered former Carson Councilman Manuel Ontal a $1.5 million bribe in exchange for Ontal’s vote to award Carson’s solid waste disposal contract to Hub City. Aloyan even admitted to making a February 2002 preliminary payment of $10,000 cash on the bribe.

Judge Joanne O’Donnell ruled in July that the contract had been terminated legally as per the Compton Municipal Code, and in early June ruled in the first, non-jury phase of the trial that Aloyan and Hub City could be considered a single entity for purposes of the trial.

The city currently contracts with Waste Management for solid waste hauling services.

At last week’s city council meeting, just a day after the verdict was handed down, the mayor said the city will unlikely be able to collect anything from Hub City and Aloyan before lauding Goodstein and his partner, Bruce Berman.

“We made an appeal to the jury’s sense of justice and fair play, and they heard it loud and clear,” said Goodstein at the meeting. “There was no doubt in their mind. It only took them three hours, and most of that was figuring out how much money to award the city.

“We got back every dime the city ever paid to Hub City.”

ADVERTISE | CLASSIFIEDS | ABOUT US | CONTACT US | SUBSCRIBE | HOME

This site and its contents ©2006 thecomptonbulletin.com