Opinion ID: 1999297
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: By Mark Fineman

Text: The City of Berwyn's recently awarded and highly controversial municipal garbage contract, like others in the suburbs, was approved amid strong charges and countercharges. `Something smells in this contract more than garbage,' charged City Clerk Robert C. Pechous, who opposed the city council's decision last December to scrap Berwyn's municipal residential-garbage service and contract with a private scavenger. `I said at the council meeting when the contract was first awarded that I think 240 pieces of silver changed hands  30 for each alderman,' Pechous added. `There was just something suspicious about the way that contract was approved.' Berwyn's eight aldermen claim Pechous' statements are politically motivated. (Pechous, a candidate for state representative in the 7th District, is a Democrat. All but one of the aldermen are Republicans.) When contacted by Suburban Week, all the aldermen vehemently denied taking payoffs. One alderman read a two-page statement denying the allegations at a recent city-council meeting. And several aldermen have threatened to sue Pechous over his charges. But a Suburban Week investigation of the awarding of the contract indicates that a close political ally of the aldermen, John Van Tholen, Jr., who publicly supported awarding the contract to Clearing Disposal Co., a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc., was given a high-level WMI position shortly after the council approved the Clearing contract. Van Tholen and several of the alderman are active members of the Berwyn Regular Republican Organization. He was once appointed Berwyn streets superintendent by the city council, but that appointment was later nullified in Cook County Circuit Court. Van Tholen was hired by WMI in January just after the contract was awarded. At least one inside industry source claims the WMI job `was a reward for having made sure the Berwyn contract was given to Clearing.' Van Tholen denied the charges. `I had nothing to do with it (the awarding of the contract). The night they were deciding on the contract, I went up to John DeBoer (a WMI representative) and asked if there would be a job open at Clearing,' claimed Van Tholen, who owned his own scavenger business for 28 years. `That was it. As far as I know, that job wasn't a reward at all.' Most of the aldermen have admitted they are friends of Van Tholen's, but all denied that Van Tholen influenced their decision to award the contract to Clearing. `I've known John Van Tholen for years and years. He lives in my ward,' said Ald. Raymond G. Cox, the only non-Republican on the city council. `But that didn't enter into it at all. This contract is saving the people of Berwyn money. That's the only reason we approved it. Friendship wasn't involved.' But there were other suspicious circumstances surrounding the awarding of the contract, according to an industry source. Bidding against Clearing Disposal on the contract was a Berwyn-based scavenger firm, the C. Groot Automatic Disposal Co. According to Securities and Exchange Commission documents, the Groot firm is owned by John C. Groot, a WMI stockholder and one of WMI's eight founders. A WMI spokesman confirmed that Groot is a stockholder in WMI, but he said WMI is in no way connected to the Groot firm. However, at least one industry source claimed the Groot firm's bid of $3.55 a month for each Berwyn family was never intended to be competitive against Clearing's bid of $3.15 per family. The only other bid received at that time was from Van Der Molen Disposal Co., a subsidiary of Browning Ferris Industries. That firm's bid was $3.20. Those bids on the initial garbage contract, awarded last Dec. 29, were later thrown out by Circuit Court Judge Francis Delaney after both Berwyn Democratic administration officials and another private scavenger firm filed suit against the aldermen. Delaney ordered the aldermen to readvertise for bids and approve a second contract. Clearing Disposal's second bid was still lowest and it received the existing contract last February. Some Berwyn officials have said they're considering turning over information on the awarding of the contract to federal authorities. `I've said all along that if it were ever discovered how that contract was really approved, there'd be some vacant chairs in the city council,' charged City Clerk Pechous. `There are just too many unanswered questions in the contract. The whole thing was railroaded through, and we can't help but think there was some stronger motivation behind it.'