It took just a short drive in my Jeep up to the Prima Descheca Landfill to realize just how trashed county officials’ credibility is these days.
Officials have repeatedly downplayed the impact of a Teamsters Union strike, telling residents that the over 400 workers picketing aren’t impacting public services like landfills – yet a county filing to the state labor board contradicts that position, claiming the strike created havoc reducing trash deliveries by roughly 75% at one landfill.
OC Supervisors are expected to meet in closed session at 2 p.m. today to discuss a Teamsters Union contract while the strike is paused.
It’s become a sport at the Orange County Hall of Administration to just plain lie to the press and residents when asked hard, direct questions about the real impacts of public policy decisions, and last week’s teamster’s strike was no different.
When the strike first started, our county reporter, Noah Biesiada, sent county spokespeople a simple question.
“I’m hearing landfills are starting to backup with the strike,” Biesiada wrote in an Oct. 14 email, the day after the strike began, asking, “Do you have any info on how long the waits are right now for trash trucks to dump?”
An OC Waste & Recycling spokeswoman got right back to him that same day.
“All three landfill locations in Brea (Olinda Alpha), Irvine (Frank R. Bowerman)and San Juan Capistrano (Prima Deshecha) have remained open and continue to accept commercial and residential hauler waste disposal,” they wrote.
“Wait times have fluctuated throughout the day depending on incoming traffic,” they continued. “We continue to monitor access and tonnage received while keeping our cities and haulers updated to keep these important services accessible.”
Having grown up alongside many strike lines – my father was a longtime machinist and a Teamster – that kind of “nothing going on here” response motivated me to drive to Prima Descheca to get a close look myself.
Once the landfill entry was visible from the road, I immediately ran into a “No Public Access” sign on La Pata Road so I drove past the OC Waste and Recycling worker telling the public that the landfill was closed and parked to ask questions on the strike lines.
I later followed up about the discrepancy between official statements and the reality on the ground with a text to the chief spokeswoman at OC Recycling, who stuck by the party line – relaying me virtually the same statement with a bit more background.
“All three landfill sites have remained open today as of this time to receive commercial and residential hauler waste disposal. Wait times have fluctuated throughout the day. Picketing activity has continued at all three sites. We’ve worked closely with our city and hauling partners to monitor wait times and fluctuations in tonnage to continue these important services. We can confirm that law enforcement has been onsite at all three locations monitoring activity to ensure safety and traffic control,” wrote OC Waste and Recycling Public Communication Manager Francine Bangert.
About an hour later, Bangert emailed me back, admitting the reality on the ground was different than the party line.
“To clarify, Prima Deshecha Landfill was closed to self-haulers and the general public on 10/13 and 10/14. Olinda Alpha Landfill closed at approximately 11 a.m. today to self-haulers and the general public.
The real truth about the impacts of the Teamster strike came a week later in a dramatic, 106-page claim where county leaders formally complained to the state Public Employment Relations Board that union members had created havoc at the landfills.
The filing notes picketers were “repeatedly, from October 13 through October 17, 2026, physically blocking ingress to and egress from County landfills on County property and public roads, impeding County employees and members of the public entering and leaving.”
County leaders also claim Teamsters’ actions interfered with trash collection, saying the Bowerman Landfill in Irvine usually takes in around 8,000 tons of trash per day and only took in less than 2,100 tons on four successive days because of the strike.
One Bowerman Landfill manager stipulated concerns about the ongoing impacts if the strike continued, writing that officials had to force non-Teamsters staff to work overtime at the landfills, noting county officials could even face regulatory problems because of the low staffing.
“Right now, many of the haulers are taking the trash out of the county to other facilities,” wrote David Tieu, a Deputy Director in OC Waste and Recycling’s Central Region and an OCWR Executive Management Team member in his statement to PERB. “Fatigue could result in potential injuries and the need to shut down the landfill if there is insufficient staffing available.”
None of that was ever publicly disclosed in realtime, even when press asked direct questions about strike impacts.
Indeed, it’s a stark difference from what the OC Waste and Recycling spokespeople told the press and public when the strike began, that there were essentially no impacts and everything was open and functioning largely normally.
To me, that’s a huge blow to the county’s credibility.
I wonder whether our elected county supervisors or board candidates in next month’s election care about having an accountable, credible bureaucracy.
History tells me they don’t.
Now, I don’t blame the spokespeople that have to juggle emotionally-sensitive department heads, along with county supervisors and the CEO’s office – all trembling that the public might actually get a hint at what’s really happening or what they are doing during a crisis or emergency.
The culture inside Orange County’s Hall of Administration is all about protecting the OC brand.
Our high taxes here in California make us expect not only Grade A service but total accountability – an ability to learn from mistakes, adjust policy when needed.
Except, we generally seem to elect C-student politicians, who in turn, hire C-student administrators.
In this environment, the goal of each agency is to evade, erase or stall the public at every turn.
That’s been the county response to public questioning in almost every major news scandal in recent years.
Meanwhile, it’s rare to see any elected county supervisor publicly challenge much less reform these secretive tendencies inside the county Hall of Administration.
The county bureaucracy largely protected former Supervisor, now felon serving a five-year prison stint, Andrew Do, in his schemes to defraud taxpayers, generally avoiding any public comments or consequences once questions were raised by ongoing media reports.
Same as when OC Animal Care resisted activist calls to open the shelter to walk-in public visits after Covid or refused to answer questions about whether the Animal Care director lives in state.
Or when the CEO stripped the elected Treasurer Tax Collector of all investment duties.
Or when county officials took credit for lower homelessness numbers in OC but couldn’t explain why.
Or when OC Public Works officials resisted Creek Team calls to rethink a haphazard herbicide spraying approach in local creeks.
Or when the same agency nearly burned down the Cleveland National Forest in the Airport Fire.
Or when county officials got called out on the secretive nature of the county’s budget process.
Or when they negotiated controversial Dana Point Harbor hotel deals in the dark that ultimately flatlined.
This month, it’s OC Waste and Recycling publicly downplaying legitimate questions about the impacts of a strike.
The latest scandal just showcases how more and more, the County of Orange focuses on spin instead of giving taxpayers truthful public information they can use to impact public policy in real time.
