Trash Wars

Lawyer Brandt

A few days back I posted an article called "Athens Services Contract Leads To Lawsuit For Bribery." The purpose of the article was to highlight a story about a bribery lawsuit somehow involving the City of Montebello and Athens Services. Athens being the company that picks up the garbage in Sierra Madre.

However, there was an interesting (to me, anyway) subtext involving landfill practices, recycling and which trash companies do that as it should be done, and those who don't. The source for a portion of that information was a news site called "Western Journalism."

For whatever the reason, it was this subtext, and not the lawsuit itself, that prompted the following letter to this blog from Brendan W. Brandt of thelaw firm VARNER & BRANDT LLP. They are straight out of Riverside, I might add. A fortunate place known to its many enthusiasts as the City of Arts & Innovation (link).

This letter contests certain things said in the Western Journalism article I cited for my post. I am reprinting Brendan's letter here mostly because it offers interesting, and perhaps even alarming, insight into the wild and woolly world of warring trash companies. It also gives Brendan an opportunity to give his client's side of the story.

We're all about fairness here.


I am pleased to report that Lawyer Brandt is a former City of Upland City Council member. The reason this is important to me is Upland has one of the few Dunkin' Donuts franchises on the west coast. This deserves mention because we here at the Maundry Compound are east coast refugees who occasionally like to enjoy a cup of coffee served "regular." You can get that now in Upland.

As a young working fellow driving a delivery truck in New York City years back I often enjoyed the sweet and sugary products of Dunkin' Donuts. That takes me back. Especially their Boston Kreme donuts.

So anyway, I am not one to vouch for the authenticity of all the comments left on this blog. The vast majority are, in my opinion at least, aboveboard and written with the best of intentions.

But we do allow for anonymous commenting, mostly because I'd rather hear someone's opinions on something than do identity checks all day. Plus it does make for far livelier conversations. After all, we are here to entertain.

So I am not completely certain about the authenticity of what is written below, but what the heck. I'm sure I'll get a letter if I'm wrong.


Then there was this rather discordant entry:


I don't know quite what to make of all this except that trash companies do not seem to play well with one another. And they don't spell "thier" correctly. Not that spelling is what you need most from the garbageman.

But it does beg this question. When purported mafia trash companies dump bodies in landfills, is that considered proper recycling?

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